


The Rise and the Fall

by Alphum



Series: Dramatic Structure [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Catwoman Has a Sidekick | Catlad | Stray (DCU), Angst, BAMF Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, Batman: A Death in the Family, Bruce Wayne is a Good Dad, Canon-Typical Violence, Coping with trauma, Dealing with injuries, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Violence, Excessive Worldbuilding, F/F, Jason Todd is Robin, Jason Todd is in Young Justice, M/M, Multi, Tim Drake is Catlad | Stray, Tim Drake is Young Justice Adjacent, Tim is feral and the JL is adopting him, Victim Blaming, Young Justice - Freeform, gratuitous handwaving at canon, how dare u come in to MY GOOD CHRISTIAN HO, i saw someone tag their fic the other day "no beta we die like jason todd" and i am OFFENDED, in this house we hate the joker, in this house we love and cherish harleen quinzel, justice league - Freeform, no beta we die like men, rated M for violence see beginning chapter notes for any notes/warnings on that, selina kyle is a good mom, tagged Joker/Harley but I want to be clear that it's portrayed as abusive, the endgame here is Harley/Pam/Selina, they're going to have to fight Selina but they're trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:46:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 30,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21868474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alphum/pseuds/Alphum
Summary: Tim Drake is Stray who is Catwoman's sidekick who is his awesome sort-of aunt who took him in and taught him (almost) everything he knowsJason Todd is Robin who is Batman's sidekick who is his asshole kind-of dad who isn't giving him the guidance he needs because there's this new rogue tearing up Gotham's high societyRobin is handling Nightwing's load when he goes undercover after his nemesis and Stray steps in to help out where he can, but Robin's feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. The Joker takes an interest in the things that fly in the night after Robin crosses him after acting on some of Nightwing's secret dataBut cats don't fly, do they?
Relationships: Joker (DCU)/Harleen Quinzel, Pamela Isley/Selina Kyle, Pamela Isley/Selina Kyle/Harleen Quinzel, Tim Drake & Harley Quinn, Tim Drake & Selina Kyle, Tim Drake/Jason Todd (preslash)
Series: Dramatic Structure [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1556626
Comments: 292
Kudos: 495





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This starts off slow but it gets really heavy on the violence once I hit the major events. I'm rating it as M with lots of violence tags to start with so that NOBODY IS SURPRISED  
> A few notes to start with:  
> -Please read part 1 of the series (part 2 is outtakes and sidenotes) or this may not make sense.  
> -There is a timeskip between part 1 and this. Tim is now roughly 15 and Jason is roughly 17.  
> -If you are squeamish, I would recommend taking some care reading this. As I get to the yucky bits, I will let you know in the beginning chapter notes with summaries at the end chapter notes. If you have any specific questions/squicks, feel free to reach out and ask!  
> -I'm only a little sorry because so many of y'all asked for angst

Selina returned to the hotel room with coffee and a bag of something that smelled heavenly. He perked up and leaned around his laptop to see her grinning teasingly.

“What’s that?” He asked, eyes trained on the grease-stained bag.

“Vitumbua.”

“Oh my god yes.” Tim was out of his chair in a second. “Did you get any mbaazi?”

“There’s a bit in there. They were almost out.”

“You’re the best.” Tim stuck his face into the open bag and inhaled deeply. “Best day ever.” He sighed happily and fished out one of the soft, fluffy balls and popped it into his mouth. It was still warm and he hummed happily.

“Everything taken care of on…” She waved a hand at his laptop. She left all of the computer and tech things to Tim nowadays. He was far better at it, had a natural talent at it that he’d haranged and coerced and bribed Barbara into teaching him how to use.

He nodded, refusing to answer with his mouth full. He’d edited camera footage all over the city, swept away any digital details he didn’t like, and created a false digital footprint for their public personas. “All we need to do is make sure the paparazzi get a few more photos of us and we’re good to go.” He’d also created some false trails that indicated Stray and Catwoman were in Korea. They would probably get blamed for a string of rather high-profile robberies that had occurred there. They’d had nothing to do with them, of course, but Tim didn’t mind the extra layer to their alibi. After all, they were just rich tourists on vacation.

Selina had certainly done enough shopping to support that theory.

“Wonderful! Ready to go home, darling?” Selina vanished into the depths of their suite. 

“Yeah. I already got your gear packed, but you’re on your own for everything else.” Tim traveled light. A backpack and a duffel bag was all he really needed for both Tim Drake and Stray.

“I’m having the bellhop bring up a few boxes.” Selina called back, unconcerned.

Tim snorted but didn’t say anything. He grabbed his camera and followed her into her room and shook his head in amusement. Her room was a mess. Every surface was draped with clothes, new blouses, skirts, pants, and dresses in bright, fantastical prints.

Selina was examining two different tops. One was a bright magenta print set in stripes, the other was a deep aqua with batik dyed designs. “What do you think?” She proffered them, frowning in thought. The morning sun slid through the window and lit the room brightly, the gauzy curtains creating diagonal stripes of pale shadows. 

Perfect.

Tim lifted his camera and snapped a photo before she could move and spoil the shot.

Selina was so used to the shutter noise that she probably didn’t even notice it anymore.

“The pink. Wear those new black slacks you got, the ones with the stripes down the sides.”

“Ooh.” Selina discarded the blue top and began pawing through a pile of clothes on the desk. “Good thinking. Did you have a museum you wanted to visit before we go?”

“Yeah. The art museum we went to the other day, the one with the Syrian paintings you liked, they just opened a new exhibit.”

“Alright. Give me an hour or two to pack.”

“Cool. I’ll be back in three then.” He grinned. One to two hours meant she’d be ready in twice that.

Selina stuck her tongue out at him. 

Tim took another photo.

She laughed. “Be safe. Oh, and see if you can find anything for Harley!”

“Will do.” He nodded.

He hated the idea of fanny packs but appreciated the utility of them, especially when traveling abroad. He couldn’t exactly use any of his utility belts or equipment harnesses as a civilian either. He compromised with a thigh bag, strapped to his right thigh with a belt around his hip and knee. He made sure his converse were tightly laced and grabbed his sunglasses and his coffee on the way out.

He exited the hotel with a deep breath, soaking in the Nigerian sun. Lagos was a little hot for him but he couldn’t deny it was beautiful. 

He almost fell when something hit him from behind. He stumbled forwards a few steps, grabbing his camera to press it securely to his stomach, dropping his coffee to make sure his camera was safe. It splattered against his pants. “Hey!” He whirled and scowled down at the kid who had bumped into him.

The kid looked pissed and snapped something at him in rolling arabic.  _ “Watch it, dog!” _

Tim felt his mouth drop open in surprise at a  _ child _ calling him a  _ dog.  _ Of course, for arabic, it was a fairly mild insult, but it was more the principle of the thing.  _ “Watch yourself, brat!” _ He snapped right back.

The kid reared back on his heels, eyes going wide.

“Habibi!” A woman exiting the hotel called, walking quickly towards them.  _ “Darling, behave!”  _ She scolded in Arabic, laying a hand on his shoulder before looking at Tim. “I apologize for my son.” She spoke formally to him, her English only lightly accented.

Tim frowned at the kid who was looking stubbornly away. “It’s fine.” He said to the woman. “Don’t worry about it.” 

She nodded politely to him, tugging her son away.  _ “My love, you musn’t attract attention like that!” _ He could hear her scolding. 

Tim sighed down at his feet and collected his empty coffee cup. Coffee first, then pictures, it seemed.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time they got back to Gotham, Tim was exhausted. He didn’t travel well. He loved traveling, but jetlag was hard on his body that was already confused with his sleeping patterns. He rubbed at his eyes, hoping the burning would abate. Staring at his phone wasn’t helping. He tapped through filters until he found one that was just right and then posted it. It was a photo of the Gotham skyline, the buildings backlight against the smog.

**TimothyJDKyle posted: Lagos was amazing, but nothing beats Gotham #homesweethome**

“Pretty.” Selina murmured into his hair where he was leaning against her. “You’ve got a wonderful eye for photography.” 

Tim smiled at the praise and settled his cheek against her shoulder, scrolling through his Instragram feed.

**NightwinginIt posted: night out w/ the boys!!** Nightwing was sticking his tongue out at the camera, arm slung around Arsenal’s shoulders, who had an arm around Robin’s. Roy was laughing and Robin was making a face, trying to knock Arsenal’s hat off.

**BatGirlRules posted: In This House We Stan One Bird** A photo of Robin in mid-air, a vicious smirk on his face. He was completely horizontal, legs spread to plant a kick each on Nightwing and Arsenal’s backs. The two vigilantes were standing on the lip of a roof and completely unaware of what was about to happen.

**ActualBatman posted: Use birth control.** It was a photo of a blurred figure, identifiable as Robin only because of the colors. He was sprinting away from Nightwing, who was pulling himself back up over the edge of the roof, red-faced and yelling. Batgirl was lying prone on the roof, overcome with laughter.

**CrankThat posted: just witnessed a murder** It was an aerial photo of the same rooftop, two blurs falling into the alley and Robin sprawled out on the roof, laughing. Batgirl wasn’t far behind, and there was a shadowy figure in the corner that looked like he was facepalming. The whole thing was blurry, just a little shaky. In the bottom of the frame, there were battered combat boots, and in the foreground, a green hand pointed across the photo.

Tim frowned. What was Young Justice doing in Gotham? They obviously had Batman’s permission. He’d have to look into that. He’d do it later though; they were almost home.

Pamela and Harley welcomed them home. Pamela swept Selina up in a tight embrace, kissing her soundly. Selina hugged her back just as tightly, humming happily.

Tim made a face, as he usually did, and looked at Harley when they pulled apart from their own hug. Normally, they would commiserate with each other over the other two women’s PDA, but today, Harley wasn’t making her usual face. She looked a little sad watching them.

“Harley?”

She blinked and quick as flicking a switch, she was beaming at him. “What’s up, kiddo?”

Huh. Weird. “I like your hair.” He said instead of prying.

She grinned brightly. “Thanks!” It was cornsilk blond, pulled up into high pigtails. Her hair was still long enough to fall past her shoulders. One pigtail was dyed bubblegum pink and the other was dyed cotton candy blue. “It was loads’a fun!” She shook her head to make them dance around her. She was paler than she’d been when he’d seen her last. Which, come to think, was actually a while ago. A few months, at least. He could see a bandage peeking out the neck of her tee shirt and there was another bandage covering her left thigh, visible due to the short-shorts she was wearing.

He hugged her and didn’t miss her slight wince of pain before she was hugging him back tightly.

“I’m so glad you’re back! It was so boring without’cha!”

“You would’ve liked Lagos.” He informed her.

She grinned and tapped his nose when they pulled apart. “I like anyplace, s’long as you’re there too!” Her smile was genuine, her moment of ennui over. 

He smiled.

“Tim, sweetheart, you’re growing like a weed.” Pamela hugged him next.

Sure enough, he was tall enough to press his face into her neck rather than her chest. He smiled broadly up at her. “Blame the fertilizer.” He joked.

She snorted and shook her head, though she was smiling fondly. The fondness only grew when she looked over at Harley and Selina.

There was a bright lipstick mark on Harley’s cheek, dangerously close to her mouth, and she was blushing as pink as her hair. Selina was giggling.

Tim glanced between the three of them and smiled to himself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops y'all get another chapter bc I just realized I didn't actually post everything I meant to, so this was actually supposed to be up with chapter one! I thought it looked short oops


	3. Chapter 3

Stray sprinted across the rooftops, side by side with Catwoman. It was so freeing to run like this. They were unfettered as they ran across roofs and leapt down fire escapes and climbed up sheer sides of buildings. They didn’t necessarily have a plan for the evening, but the chance to refamiliarize their feet with the rooftops was too tempting to pass by.

If nothing else, it was a good workout.

If nothing else, it was good to be back in Gotham.

Stray and Catwoman went different ways once they hit the financial district. Catwoman had some surveillance to do and Stray had some security measures to check, as well as a special mission from Poison Ivy.

Robin caught up to him on the roof of one of the Wayne Enterprises buildings where Bruce Wayne had built a greenhouse for some research for one department or another. Batman got scowly when Poison Ivy came and went too much, so sometimes she sent Stray to check in and make sure the gene researching wasn’t getting out of hand.

Stray let himself in with a skeleton key and grabbed a garden hose. He tucked his gauntlets away but kept his gloves on as he stole through the narrow isles. He kept careful track not to water anything that had a watering log next to it, not wanting to disturb anyone’s research.

Honestly, he was pretty sure the whole gene researching thing was a white lie. Pamela had a bleeding heart for anything green and a distrust for corporations. Well, maybe it wasn’t a white lie, considering how many different fields WE was in. Either way, Tim was just glad she trusted him to help.

He put the hose away and gently fixed a few beanpoles.

“Little kitty looks lost.” The words were more teasing than taunting.

Tim grinned to himself and then turned and smiled sweetly at Robin. He’d always been taller than Tim, but he towered over him now. Tim was 15 and hadn’t quite hit his growth spurt yet. Jason was 17 and in the middle of his. He was a few inches shy of 6 feet, but closing in on it fast. He was packing on muscle and Tim suspected he would get quite a bit broader fairly soon here. 

Tim was envious, though he’d never admit it. He was barely 5’4” in his socks to Jason’s 5’10”. He felt like a toothpick next to him, but knew his lack of bulk was ultimately an advantage with his fighting style. When Jason shot up, Tim had taken up a few different kinds of weapons to even the odds and lengthen his reach. 

“Why, you looking to adopt?” He teased back. He took Jason’s posture in as he went. It was easy and relaxed, a little excited. Not here to attack him then. He relaxed.

“How was Africa?” Jason tossed something at him.

He caught it easily. “Oh my god. You’re the best.” He hadn’t had a batburger in forever.

“I know.” Jason said magnanimously. “Now, Africa? Tell me you have some cool pictures for me!” He plopped down on a worktable next to a large tomato plant and after a minute, Tim sat next to him. Jason was tearing into his own bag.

“Yeah, it was cool. I’ll show you in a minute.” He took a huge, messy bite from his burger and hummed happily. He and Jason ate in relative silence. They were both teenage vigilantes and needed all the calories they could get.

Tim showed him a ton of pictures of Africa on his phone, glad he’d uploaded his digital camera to his cloud already.

“So what did you track me down for?” Tim asked eventually, once they were done with photos and burgers. He was fairly sure Jason had hunted him down for something, and he was proven correct when Jason’s shoulders tensed. Tim waited.

“I…” He sighed. “I need some help.”

“Sure. What’s up?” Tim agreed.

Jason looked at him, face unreadable. Then his shoulders relaxed and he shook his head, the smallest of smiles starting to tug at his lips. “So Nightwing’s going to go undercover, he needs to take care of something.”

“Okay.” Tim hadn’t been aware of that. He hadn’t hacked into the Batcomputers in a while. It would have taken too long from overseas. He had something on his to-do list for tomorrow then.

“It’s some deep cover shit. He’s going to be gone for a while. So I’m going to be taking over a lot of his shit that he does.” Jason ruffled his hair, a nervous tell of his. “Like the Young Justice shit.”

“Whoa, really?” Tim blinked. “That’s incredible.”

“Yeah, an incredible amount of work.” Jason scowled. “It’s really public eye and I have to play by League rules.”

Tim considered. Jason was a lot looser with his fists than the League generally cared for. “You don’t need my help for that though.” He pointed out.

Jason glanced around and slipped one of his phones out, passing it to Tim. “Dickie’s real good with computers. I’m not.” He looked uncomfortable.

“Oh.” He took the phone and pulled an uplink node out of one of his pockets. He attached it to the base and adjusted his goggles down over his eyes. Information began to stream across the inside of his lenses and he scrolled through it with his fingers in the air. “It looks like most of what he does is information gathering, sometimes scanning buildings to update blueprints. Lots of hacking into cameras. Piggybacking satelites. All of this is--” He cut himself off before he could finish the thought. Telling Jason that something he was uncomfortable doing was ‘pretty easy’ was the fastest way to inflame his quick temper. “pretty standard for me.” He said instead. “I can definitely help.” He waved his hand and the information on his lenses minimized in time for him to see Jason sigh in relief. 

“You’re a lifesaver.” He said, smiling at Tim.

Tim was glad for his cowl as his cheeks went pink. “No problem. So are you going to be out of Gotham?” He asked, changing the subject.

Jason nodded with a sigh. “Yeah. I’m going to be based at Mount Justice most of the time. I’m going to be splitting time between there and the Batcave.” Mount Justice was in Rhode Island. It wasn’t far, but it was too far for the casual hang outs that Tim had gotten used to over the years.

“Is Batman going to be okay?” He asked.

“Yeah, Batgirl’s going to be with him when I’m not. If she or I have to call out, Batwoman has agreed to work with B some. Hopefully that won’t happen, because I’m pretty sure they’ll kill each other, rules or nah.” Jason snorted.

“I’ll keep an eye out for him when I can.” Tim said without really thinking about it.

Jason’s shoulders slumped slightly and he ran a hand through his hair. “Thanks.” He sighed. It was tinged with relief. “I know Barbie’ll keep him in line, but…” ‘I worry’ was left unsaid.

“He’s a tough old man.” Tim smiled reassuringly. “He’ll be fine.”

Jason nodded. “He’ll be fine.” He repeated. 

“And so will you. Working with the League is a big thing. It’s cool.”

“I’m glad someone thinks so.” Jason made a face. “Arsenal’s giving me so much shit for it.”

Tim grinned. “Of course he is.”

“So,” Jason slid off the table. “Anything on the docket tonight except B&E?”

“Like B didn’t practically give me a key.” Tim scoffed, but followed him out of the greenhouse. Tim locked it securely behind them and slipped his gauntlets on. “And you know I can’t say.”

“Too bad. If you’d give us the information we want, we’d give you some sweet shit.” Jason cajoled.

Tim laughed. “I’ve told you, I’m not going to flip on Catwoman.”

“And I’ve told B, but he keeps telling me to get in good with you.” Jason grinned. “But come on, you can’t tell me you don’t want a grappler.” Jason flipped his grappling gun into the air, rather pointedly.

“If I wanted one, I’d just steal one.” Tim grinned back. Or make one, like he had in development. Until then, he’d keep getting by with his whip, claws, and harness. 

“I’d like to see you try.” Jason laughed as he stepped up onto the lip of the roof. They’d had this exact same back and forth a hundred times by now.

Tim always just smirked. Today, he was emboldened by their time apart and reached up to rest a hand on Jason’s chest, fingers splayed over the moulded armor. He knew it was just his imagination that made his hand hot where it touched him.

Jason raised an eyebrow, tilting his head to choreograph it.

“Don’t ask if you don’t want me to bring it.” Tim teased, rather than remaining silent like he usually did at the end of this bit. He pushed firmly, pulling his hand away before Jason could grab onto him.

He got to watch Jason’s face melt into part-panic, part amusement as he tipped and fell off the roof. Jason shoved out with his feet, sending him into a backflip before his grapple shot out with a hiss. He turned and ran before Jason could get back up, grinning the whole way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meant to get this up sooner but the holidays are crazy and I accidentally played Pokemon for 437829 hours instead of remembering to proofread shit  
> I'm back to work tomorrow so keep an eye out for another chapter over the weekend.  
> Leave me a comment and let me know what you liked! <3


	4. Chapter 4

Tim slipped into Dick’s apartment through the window. There was only a few simple traps that he skipped over without activating them. According to the schedule on the Bludhaven Police Department website, Dick was just getting off of work.

Tim looked through Dick’s kitchen and only found protein bars and cereal. Gross. He ordered a pizza.

By pure luck, Dick and the pizzaman reached the door at the same time. Tim couldn’t have planned that better if he’d tried.

“Are you serious?” Dick called out as he shut the door behind himself. 

“You didn’t have any food and I was hungry.” Tim shouted back, changing the soccer match on TV to cartoons.

“Oh my god, Gargoyles, I love this show!”

“I know, now gimme the goods.” Tim had cleared the coffee table of dirty bowls and old reports.

Dick frowned at the coffee table.

“I organized your reports and sorted them chronologically. The police ones are by the door and I put your extracurriculars in your safe.” He said before Dick could even open his mouth.

Dick sighed and sat next to him. The entire couch sagged slightly under his weight. He flipped open the pizza boxes and Tim grabbed two pieces of veggie supreme, folding them together. “Should I be concerned that you know the combination to my safe?” He asked, sounding tired.

Tim shook his head. “Who said anything about the combination?” He asked coyly before shoving as much pizza in his mouth as he could.

Dick muttered something about cats, but Tim could tell it was mostly for show as he kicked his boots off and sat cross-legged. Half a pizza and a dozen wings later, Dick was in a much better mood.

“Okay Timbers, what’cha need?” He asked, slinging an arm around Tim’s shoulders.

Tim was glad he’d gotten over the majority of his childish hero-worship crush on Dick, but sometimes it flared up. He could feel his neck going hot as Dick dragged him into his muscled side and Tim had to brace himself against Dick’s muscled thigh to keep Dick from overturning him over his muscled lap. Oh god.

Tim straightened and wiped his hands off on a napkin before fishing in his pockets. “I just wanted to drop some stuff off for you.” He handed Dick a thumb drive. “This is a copy of everything I have on Slade.” He’d swiped Jason’s phone and gone through it, curious to see if any of his guesses were right. Unfortunately, they were.

Dick’s smile flattened and his eyebrows descended. He took it, movements carefully gentled against the anger in his eyes.

“Jason said you were going deep cover, so I set up a few dummy email relays for if you need any extra information off of new intel and a burner phone line that’s separate from all of the Bat and League circles if you need an emergency out. All the information on them is in there.”

Dick pulled a laptop out from under the couch. It scanned his thumbprint before it opened and he plugged the drive in. He bent over it and started clicking through the different files. He didn’t reply to Tim.

He hadn’t expected him to.

Dick had incredibly single-minded intensity when he got his teeth into something. It was to the exclusion of all else.

With Dick distracted, he changed the channel back to soccer, just in time to see Argentina score. Hell yeah. Now all he had to do was keep pressing pizza into Dick’s free hand. He’d eat it automatically. He successfully got Dick to eat three slices of veggie supreme because gods only knew he didn’t get enough vegetables. 

He didn’t bother asking Dick when he was leaving and what he would be doing. He’d snuck into the files from Jason’s phone. He still couldn’t consistently hack their systems, so usually he just pickpocketed Jason’s phone and looked through what he needed from there. He probably knew about as much as Dick did, so he knew how unprepared Dick would be going into this venture. He knew that him being unprepared would only make him more determined. And more reckless.

“Be careful.” He said, pulling on his jacket.

Dick hummed and clicked even deeper into the files.

Tim left out the window, leaving Dick hopefully better prepared and better nourished. He would need it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another quick chapter as I work on setting up the board and the players. I hope you’re enjoying it so far!


	5. Chapter 5

Tim’s cell vibrated on the table. He ignored it for a moment, finishing his thought in his essay before grabbing it. Caller ID said it was Jason, complete with a photo of him asleep on a rooftop drooling on his Robin’s gear. He tapped accept and toggled it to his headphones.

“This is Tim.”

_ “Hey dude, were you serious about helping me out with covering for Dickie? _ ” Jason asked, loud in his headphones.

He adjusted the volume. “Of course.”

_ “Cool, I told him and he said he’d make sure his shit at the clubhouse is all set up for you, but I’m taking over some gear and shit this weekend. Do you need to bring anything?” _

Tim hadn’t thought of that. “Do you know the specs of his equipment? Like, do I need to bring my own servers and processors to sync to my setup here?”

_ “Shit, I dunno. Good question. I don’t know shit about all the electronic shit like you and Dickie do.” _ He sounded frustrated again.

“Don’t worry about it, I can message him and see what all I need to bring. Probably just some interfacing stuff to hook his programs into mine. Did you already talk to, uh, your scout leaders?” 

Jason snorted out a laugh and Tim grinned.  _ “Yeah. I had to bring B into it when they were like ‘wait, isn’t he a bad guy?’” _

It was Tim’s turn to laugh now. “I mean, I kind of am. I still can’t believe I’m doing it.”

_ “Selina okay with everything?” _

“Yeah.” Tim rolled his eyes. “She’s ecstatic. Thinks I’ll be making friends or something. I think she thinks it’s like summer camp.”

_ “I mean, it kind of is. A bunch of nerds all in dorms together doing group bonding activities and forced to be within fifty feet of each other at all times with mandated bedtimes.” _ Jason sounded disgruntled.

Tim grimaced. “Yeah, that does sound… lame.”

Jason sighed gustily.  _ “So I’m heading up sometime Saturday afternoon.” _

Tim thought for a moment. “I can do Saturday.”

_ “Cool. I’ll be over around four or so, unless anything changes.” _

“Kay. Anything else?”

_ “Nope. Seeya then.” _

“See you.” He hung up and added an event to his calendar. He’d have to be sure he had all his homework for Selina done before then. Guess he had to get going on these building plans then.

-

Tim came to awareness when he heard Selina’s footsteps on his floor. She let the ball of her foot tap against the wood floor in the middle of each step, wanting him to hear her approach.

Tim shoved at his blanket enough for it to flap free of his face and he squinted an eye open at her.

She looked just as tired from their evening activities as he felt. She wasn’t even wearing her contacts yet, was wearing her coke bottle glasses instead. She was clutching her mug of coffee as if her life depended on it. She sat on his bed, but didn’t say anything.

Belladonna immediately perked up and clambered over Tim to sit on Selina’s lap. He grunted when she put all of her weight on a bruise on his chest and wiggled to dislodge her. Tim rolled over and twisted and pressed his head against Selina’s hip.

She sipped her coffee, lengthening it into an obnoxious slurp.

He grunted.

“Why is there a bird here.”

It took Tim a moment to process her words. When it finally clicked, he turned his head and squinted up at her with one eye.

She squinted back, just as bleary, taking another long, loud sip of coffee.

“What?” Tim managed when she swallowed.

“Why is Jason Todd standing in my entryway?” Selina asked. 

“What the fuck?” Tim kicked free of his blankets and slipped across the room. If it had been an emergency, he would have called, right? He found Jason in the entryway, scowling at an ugly painting. “Hey.”

Jason turned. “Hey. Kaldur called, he wants me to be there for practice today. Are you good to bring your tech stuff up today instead of tomorrow?”

So he was leaving a day and a half early. That made sense. He rubbed at his face with one hand, mentally rearranging his schedule. “Only if we can get coffee.”

“Way ahead of you.” That was Pam.

Tim glanced over.

Pam was exiting the kitchen, holding a mug out.

“You’re the best, P.” He sighed and took the precious mug. He pecked her on the cheek in thanks.

“Only the best for my Timmy.” She smiled, far more awake than either Tim or Selina. “Would your friend like some coffee as well?” She asked Tim, crossing her arms. 

Tim could read in her stance that she was uncomfortable with Robin there. Of course she wouldn’t be, with as many times as they’d fought against each other. “Jay? Coffee? Pam makes great coffee.” He gulped from his mug pointedly.

Jason looked between Tim and Pam, looking incredibly uncomfortable. “Uh… No thanks.”

“He’d love some.” He said to Pam. “I’ll be right back, I just have to throw all my stuff in a box.”

“And a shirt, dear.” Pamela reminded him, pecking him on the forehead.

Jason twitched.

“Be right back.” Tim moved up the stairs as quickly as he could without spilling his coffee. He met Selina halfway to his room. “Can you make sure they don’t kill each other?”

“I suppose.” Selina yawned and stretched. “Though I may, for interrupting. Pam hardly ever cuddles in the morning.” She pouted at Tim

Tim hurried. He came back down with his backpack and a box, but he still needed to grab a few things from downstairs.  He got a refill on his coffee. “Come help me with this one, Jason.” He ordered. “There’s a few boxes I need to bring from downstairs.”

Jason was quite eager to abandon the kitchen in favor of following Tim. Tim opened up the secret door in Selina’s office and led him down to their hidden lair.

Jason looked around with interest. “Not as fancy as the Batcave, but still, not bad.”

“Like I’d know.” Tim said, making a beeline over to his computer setup. “It’ll just take me a few minutes to finish up. Don’t touch anything.” Jason ignored him, of course. By the time Tim was ready, he was examining several crates against one wall. “Hey, I said don’t touch!”

Jason dropped the lid of one of the crates, looking innocent. “I’m not touching anything!”

Tim pointed to his box of computer parts. “Come do your job.” He grumbled. He wasn’t awake enough for arguing with Jason.

Thankfully, Jason listened, coming over and hefting the box with enviable ease. One day Tim would be as strong as him, he told himself. One day. 

“This it?” Jason asked.

He nodded. He had considered bringing some servers, but he figured if he needed more, the Young Justice could foot the bill. “Yeah, I think so.”

Tim closed up behind them, making sure Jason hadn’t snuck anything onto any of the electronics, making the older boy laugh. He waited patiently though. “One day I’ll show you.” He grinned at Tim once they were back upstairs.

“Show me what?” Tim asked.

“The Batcave.” He ruffled Tim’s hair as he walked away, the box propped on his hip.

Tim could feel himself going red. From a bat, that felt uncomfortably like a declaration of love. He followed Jason out after a moment, once he was sure his face was under control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, posting a chapter: okay that's everything I wanted to touch on before I get into the plot  
> Me, twenty minutes later: unless,,,,,,,,,,,,
> 
> I have 80% of this written and just waiting, but now it's just I have to put all the finishing touches on the setup  
> Next chapter: Tim meets Young Justice (but keep in mind it's my bastardized version of things so that part 3 will make sense) (fuck I'm already planning a part 3 send help)
> 
> Leave a comment and let me know what you're thinking! They're more motivating than you'd think! <3 I hope you're enjoying it so far!


	6. Chapter 6

“Are we ready?” Jason was holding his backpack and box and Tim shouldered his bag of Stray gear that Selina had gathered for him. “Anything else?”

“Just these.” Pamela handed Jason a reusable shopping bag that he raised an eyebrow at.

“Cool. I’ll have your little kitty cat back this evening.” He grinned at Selina.

“Do I need to give you a curfew?” She teased Tim.

“Just go.” Tim sighed and pushed Jason along until they hit the porch. “Whoa.”

“Right?” Jason trotted across the drive to the sleek car parked there. “Can you believe he lets me drive this, but not the Batmobile?”

Tim admired the Lamborghini Miura before him. “Whoa.” He said again. “This is. Wow.”

“Yep.” Jason grinned and opened the passenger door. “I took up the trunk space with my gear, but I figured it’s better for your delicate shit to be in the cab anyway.” 

Good thing he wasn’t bringing the servers. “Uh. Yeah, thanks.” Jason packed his gear away before Tim peered in. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to be in this?” He didn’t want to get cat hair on Bruce Wayne’s Luxury Upholstery. 

Jason snorted. “Yeah dude. If B could get over Dickie dropping an entire box of powdered doughnuts in the Batmobile, he won’t mind a cat in a car he never uses.”

Tim gently tucked his backpack into the footspace, nervous of touching anything. He gave Jason another nervous look before settling in. 

Jason shut his door for him and swaggered around to the driver’s side, looking incredibly amused. “How is it that you steal priceless jewels and shit without batting an eye but a nice car makes you nervous?”

Tim considered. He had a point. “Well, I mean, there’s not a chance that I can stain a diamond, but this is, like, baby calf leather.”

“It’s vegan, don’t worry.” Jason checked all of his mirrors and looked over at Tim. “Buckle up, Jesus.”

“Do you even have your driver’s license?” Tim grabbed the seatbelt obediently.

“Yeah, I finally got it last month. Bruce made me keep my learners for like, a year and a half.” He rolled his eyes.

Tim grinned. “How responsible of him.” He squirmed around until he was curled in the seat and yawned widely. “So what changed with--” He waved a hand vaguely.

Jason huffed. “They want me there for practice, get a head start on my teamwork.” He rolled his eyes. “I guess they had a bunch of problems with Dickhead’s teamwork when he first started, and because clearly we’re the same fucking person, they think I need work on my fucking teamwork.”

Tim frowned. “Your teamwork’s fine though.”

“I know! Thank you! Jesus! I’m fighting a losing battle though because B doesn’t want to horn in on Dinah’s shit or whatever.”

“That’s dumb.” Tim offered. “You’re way better at fighting in a group than Dick is.” They usually fought across from one another, but there had been a few times when they’d played on the same side. Tim thought they fought well together. “You fight with Bruce and Babs and Dick all the time.”

“That’s what I keep saying, but nobody listens to Robin, apparently.” Jason said. He was clearly incredibly annoyed with the whole thing.

“Have you studied their fighting styles?” Tim asked.

“Of course I have. Dick even gave me his stupidly comprehensive files on them all.”

“So you just gotta wow em. Go in guns blazing and kick their asses.” Tim yawned again. Jason gave him a sidelong look, something considering in his brows. He was silent for a long moment before he made a sharp turn into Starbucks. Tim made a happy noise and hurriedly drained his travel mug.

“If your order is more than five words, you’re walking.” Jason threatened.

Tim laughed. He ended up leaning over to yell his order to the speaker when Jason butchered it three times. Tim made Jason try it and he grudgingly admitted it wasn’t horrible. Tim just snickered to himself every time Jason grimaced discretely when he took a drink of his black coffee.

  
  
  


“Where do you want to stop for lunch?” Jason asked.

“Pam packed us a lunch.” Tim grabbed the reusable bag from the backseat.

“Wait, seriously?” Jason gaped at him.

“Yeah?” Tim blinked.

“Poison Ivy packed us a lunch.” He leaned over to peer into the bag.

“Yeah, she makes great salads.”

“Poison Ivy packed us lunch. Oh my god, B’s gonna shit a brick.” Jason fished his phone out and snapped a photo.

“Do you want the italian dressing or the oil and vinegar?” Tim pulled out two tupperware containers.

“Italian.”

“Oh, she sent caprese too!”

“Jesus. Here, let me find a place to stop then since we have a fucking  _ spread _ .” He took the next exit and they piled out of the car at a gas station.

Tim unloaded the bag onto a picnic table. Salads, caprese, pretzels, lemonade, and cookies. 

Jason stared at it. “Do you eat like this all the time?”

“Only when Pamela and Harley are around. When it’s just me and Selina, we usually order out.”

“Christ. Poison Ivy cooks. Wait, Harley? As in Quinn?”

“Yeah.” Tim nodded, opening his salad. “She’s a doctor, you know. She’s always on Selina to eat healthier. Something about sodium and oil and MSG. She made the cookies.”

Jason’s eyes looked ready to bug out. “Harley Quinn bakes?”

Tim shook the container of oil and vinegar briskly before dumping it over his salad and stirring with his fork. Maybe he shouldn’t tell Jason that the chicken on the salads was actually tofu.

Jason laughed when his phone lit up, the text tone chiming several times in a row. He reached out his phone to show Tim.

**yo so poison ivy packed us a fuckin lunch?????**

**B: Ivy antidote green backpack right side second pouch**

**B: General poison antidote black backpack right side compartment**

**B: Poison identification kit red toolbox**

**B: Poison antidote synthesizer yellow toolbox**

**B: MREs under passenger seat**

**B: Also, language.**

Tim laughed. “It’s not poisoned, I promise.”

“I know. If she wanted to kill me, she woulda done it at your place.” Jason texted something back and tossed his phone down. “God this looks good though.” He mimicked Tim and shook his dressing before dumping it over his food, using his fingers to throw in a few tomatoes from the caprese. Jason finished before Tim because Tim had manners and didn’t eat like a vacuum cleaner. He watched with amusement as Jason ate most of the caprese and pretzels while giving the cookies a suspicious look. He ended up eating most of the cookies too, which Tim didn’t begrudge him. He had near-unlimited access to Harley’s baked goods and besides, Jason needed to get the calories for his stupidly broad shoulders somewhere.

“How much further?” Tim asked, slipping his shoes off so he could curl into the seat better.

“Two hours, if traffic keeps being such a shitshow.” Jason grumbled, merging aggressively into traffic again.

Tim yawned. “Well I’m going to nap then.”

“Catnap?” Jason grinned.

“Shut up.” He grumbled, flipping his hood up. Tim slept most of the last leg, curled up in the faux-leather bucket seat. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The setup is the hardest part honestly. Shout out to my friend Sam and the like 4 episodes of young justice I've watched with her. @ Sam and everyone else grimacing at my flagrant disregard for one cohesive canon, I am so sorry  
> I got some lovely comments last chapter so a big thank you to everyone who's commenting and another huge thank you to everyone that's following this lil series and enjoying my yelling it really means a lot to me <3 <3 <3   
> My birthday is coming up in like a week and a half. Know what I want? Comments <3 they are my lifeblood thanks


	7. Chapter 7

He woke up when Jason pulled over on a side road and dug around in the glovebox. 

“I should’ve asked; your ears pierced?” 

Tim blinked sleepily. “What?”

“Are your ears pierced?” Jason dropped a little box in his lap. “Put these in if they are.” He was reaching up to his own ears as he spoke.

Tim opened the box curiously. A set of red stones set in gold plated steel. He couldn’t identify the stone though. It almost looked like a red tigers eye, shimmering in the light. He obeyed Jason’s instructions, looking up to see Jason sporting a matching pair. He didn’t know his ears were pierced. “What’re these for?” He asked.

“Thought blockers. Miss Martian’s a mindreader.”

“Oh.” Tim was grateful. The thought of his head being open for anyone to see was an uncomfortable one. He saw in shades of gray, knew the superhero community was more black and white. More than that, he really didn’t want to get caught staring at Jason’s ass.

Jason took the car into a tunnel. It looked like it should be too rocky and uneven for the sleek sports car, but the hidden road was quite smooth. Jason stopped in front of the cliffside.

They sat in silence.

Tim was about to ask what they were waiting for when the side of the cliff opened up like the doors to Moria.

“Whoa. Check out those hydraulics.” Tim said before he could help himself.

Jason just grinned and toed the accelerator. 

They parked in a massive garage between a bulldozer and a cessna. Jason didn’t bother taking his sunglasses off, though it was certainly dark enough to. Probably to hide his identity, which, he grabbed a pair of goggles from his backpack and tugged them on. Tim got out and looked around with interest. There was at least one vehicle that he was pretty sure was a spaceship, and several other vehicles of interest that he wouldn’t mind looking at.

“So you’re the replacement?”

Tim jumped, whirling.

At least he knew how he hadn’t heard him coming. The guy in the doorway was floating a foot off the ground. He was the spitting image of Superman, if twenty years were airbrushed away. Windblown hair, square jaw, and piercing blue eyes above broad shoulders and thick arms.

“You the welcoming committee?” Jason didn’t smile. His hackles were raised. Tim edged behind him, just a bit. This was obviously Superboy. 

“They sent me to get you. Said there was equipment.” He was looking Robin over with what might have passed as disinterest had he not been so thorough.

“Yeah. It’s in the backseat. Stray, what can he take?” Robin turned to him.

“The box and the bag are fine.” Most of the delicate stuff was in his backpack. 

Superboy grabbed the bags and box with enviable ease. His muscles barely seemed to shift at the weight. It was probably negligible to him, if he was anywhere near as strong as Superman. He barely spared a look for Tim.

He followed Jason silently as Superboy led them through the tunnels. Brightly lit as they were, tunnels were still creepy. They exited out into a large room that seemed to be the main area. It was split into a kitchen on one side, and a computer setup on the other, the bulk of the space left entirely clear. Different doors were all around the edges of the room and there was a zeta pad near the computers. Near the kitchen, there was a large dining table and a group of couches.

“Welcome Robin!” A green alien was floating in the main lounge area, holding a plate of cookies. “We are so glad you are here!”

A tanned atlantean was standing beside her, looming in what was probably supposed to be a non-threatening manner.

“Nightwing said your favorite cookies are peanut butter and chocolate chip!” The green girl, Miss Martian, swooped through the air to thrust the plate at Jason.

To call them cookies would be extremely charitable.

“Oh, thanks.” Jason took one. There was a sharp crack when he bit into it.

Tim prayed it wasn’t his teeth.

“These’re good, thanks.” Jason smiled genuinely at her.

She looked thrilled, cheeks tinting teal with happiness. “I am glad you like them! Oh! You have brought a guest! Would you also like one?” She held the plate out to Tim.

“No, thank you.” Tim shook his head. “I’m on a diet.” He lied quickly. He had faith in his body, but not that much faith. “Building muscle mass. Can’t have too many carbs.” He saw Jason raise an eyebrow at him, but ignored him.

“Let me know if you change your mind.” She smiled sweetly.

“Thank you.” Tim smiled.

“Hey, he’s here!” Lightning arced across the room and a speedster skidded to a halt at a perfect distance to keep Jason from reflexively decking him. “Long time, no see, little wing!” He grinned broadly, ducking around to ruffle Jason’s hair.

“Shut the fuck up!” Jason growled, swiping out with a fist. “And don’t call me that, you dickhead!”

A crackle of energy put the speedster on Jason’s other side with a cackle that reminded Tim of Dick. So this was Kid Flash.

“What is your name?” Miss Martian asked politely. He saw her eying the earrings he was wearing.

Tim pulled his attention away from where Jason was trying to catch Kid Flash to throttle him. “I’m Stray.” He held out his hand politely.

“Oh, another codename.” She pouted. “One day you bats will give in!” 

He didn’t correct her on the misconception.

“Oh, but I am M’gann! This is Kaldur and you have already met Kon and Wally!”

“Hi.” Tim gave a short wave, suddenly feeling a little shy with so many eyes on him.

“Stray, I didn’t know you were coming!”

Tim grinned as he turned, glad to see someone familiar. “Hey. Yeah, I’m helping with computer stuff.”

Black Canary smiled at him. “For some reason, I’m not surprised. Robin, welcome. You’re just in time for training.”

“Yeah, that’s what Aqualad wanted.” Jason nodded. “Guess I better get changed, huh.”

“That would be smart.” She nodded. “Locker rooms are through that doorway.” She pointed. “Stray, does Batman know you’re here?” She asked.

Tim knew what she was really asking. Did he have the security clearance to be here? He nodded. “I consulted briefly with Batgirl and also spoke to Nightwing about his systems.” He didn’t blame her for checking. He was, by all technicalities, a rogue after all.

“Good. It’ll be nice to have someone else that knows what they’re doing with these things.”

“My goal is to get things streamlined so that Robin can take care of things on his own. I’ll be available for tech support if there’s any emergencies, barring any schedule conflicts.” Tim spoke more formally than he would have if it were just he and Dinah. The watching members of the Young Justice were making him a bit nervous.

“We’re in good hands then.” She smiled. It was comforting. “Anyone trained by Batgirl is more than good enough for me.”

He smiled.

“Whoa, you trained with BG?” There was a crackle of electricity and then Wally West was standing beside him. “That’s so cool, she’s awesome! So you’re as good with computers as Nightie is!” He talked so fast that the edges of his words slurred into each other just the tiniest bit.

He took a step back, startled by the sudden proximity. “Uh, yeah. I try, anyway.”

“I am sure you are quite accomplished!” M’gann had set her cookies down somewhere and now floated over to him with a broad smile. It felt like she was looming.

“Thanks, ‘appreciate it.” He edged backwards. Jeez, they were all so tall. It felt like they towered over him. The bad thing about Selina’s training was he had gotten so used to going unnoticed, he hated being the middle of attention.

“Do you work often with Robin? Do you ever work with Nightwing?” M’gann drifted closer, leaning in.

“Yo, do you have any details on his mish? He’s being so tight lipped about it!” Wally ducked into his space as well, looking curious.

“Jesus, leave the kid alone!” Jason’s return was perfectly timed. His hands yanking him backwards by his shoulders were incredibly welcome. “No wonder you guys don’t have friends, you scare ‘em all off!” He shouldered in front of Tim.

He took a deep breath of relief. Thank god for Jason. He never minded being the center of attention.

He was wearing his summer weight uniform in deference to the heat. Hard shelled red kevlar shirt with short sleeves, green kevlar pants, fingerless red gloves, and a low-necked black cape. In lieu of sleeves, he had elbow pads, the same yellow as his utility belt and knee pads. There were vents under his arms and on the insides of his knees and calves to help vent heat. He was wearing his domino mask and he’d made an effort to slick his hair back out of his face, but it was already falling down in messy locks over his forehead. He was armed to the teeth, yellow holsters on his thighs packed with batarangs and two yellow escrima sticks hanging from his right him. He didn’t know he’d been learning them from Dick.

Black Canary interrupted before Wally and M’gann could circle up again. “I want to work on team-building exercises today.” Black Canary announced. “I know that’s not surprising to anyone and I know it might be repetitive for some of you, but we need to make sure that Robin meshes well with the established dynamics.”

“So long as he fights similarly enough to Nightwing, we shouldn’t have any problems.” Aqualad noted.

Jason scowled.

Tim wanted to wince. He grabbed Jason’s elbow, noticing his fists were cleched.

“I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but I’m not Nightwing.” Jason said, propping his fists on his hips.

“True, but given your mutual title and training, it would behoove us to be wary of any mutual pitfalls.” Aqualad motioned to Jason’s Robin uniform.

Jason gritted his teeth.

“I know you have more experience working as part of a team.” Black Canary interrupted. “The circumstances are different, but we still want to test how you work with  _ this _ team. There’s a substantial difference between Batman’s style and Young Justice’s style.” Black Canary was quick to mediate, sensing Jason’s growing anger.

“Yeah, well, Nightwing may have invented the Boy Wonder gig, but I perfected it.” Jason smirked, confident and a little mean. “Teams ain’t new to me.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any way you can prove that.” Dinah mused, looking straight at Stray.

Tim tugged the sleeves of his hoodie down over his hands, slouching down behind Jason to reduce his visual space.

“Stray, I’d be interested in seeing how you fight with Robin.”

“Come on, I’m the IT guy, not the fighting guy!” Tim whined.

“Great idea! C’mon Stray! The two of us can do whatever you throw at us!” Jason threw his arm around Tim’s shoulders, hauling him in close to his side to keep him from bolting.

“Dude! No!” Tim hissed at him. “We’re the only normies here, these guys are all metas!” Catwoman’s lessons had been very clear on two facts: Tim was squishable and metas were vicious fighters.

“Afraid we’ll kick your asses?” Superboy drawled. His biceps flexed impressively as he crossed his arms. It was absolutely on purpose. His bulging arms looked like they were bigger than Tim’s head.

“No way.” Jason laughed.

Black Canary was just watching with a smirk. “Come on. Robin and Stray versus Superboy and… Kaldur. You two need to work on your teamwork anyway.”

Tim sighed. “Let me get my gear.” He mumbled.

Jason beamed at him. “I brought it in from the car.”

“Of course you did.” He grumbled. He grabbed his bag from by the computers and followed Jason into the locker room.

“You said to kick some ass.” Jason reminded him.

“No, I told  _ you _ to kick some ass.” He turned his back to Jason as he stripped. Not only did he have to fight people who could probably squish him like a bug, but he had to change in front of the guy that looked like a walking gym advertisement. He kicked his clothes into a pile and wiggled quickly into his base layer. He sat on the narrow bench to start strapping his armor on. Even with it, he was probably going to go home black and blue. He scowled and tightened all of his straps until they hurt.

Jason amused himself by poking through all of his weapons in the bottom of the bag.

Tim grabbed his leather jacket over his Stray hoodie. It was more suited for fighting whereas his hoodie was better for stealth. Hopefully the tighter fabric wouldn’t be grabbed as easily. He settled his kukri into his harness and slipped it on. His knives took a while to stash away around his body and he hung his whip at his hip. He slipped his goggles off and exchanged them for his hat, slipping it into cowl mode. Lastly he pulled on his climbing claws over his gloves and laced his combat boots tightly.

“Damn.” Jason was watching him.

Tim blushed. How long had he been watching like that? “What?” He asked, standing and testing the fit of everything.

“That’s just, y’know, a lot to watch. I feel kind of underdressed now.” Jason gestured to himself.

Tim made a face. Sure, his kit was hot, but he couldn’t imagine wearing armoring against his bare skin. “Gross.” 

“Hey, no it’s not! The layers are all built together!”

Tim sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Tim could feel the stares when they emerged from the locker room.

“Whoa, you’re Stray, like Catwoman Stray!” Wally stared.

Kaldur’s head snapped around at that. “You’re a rogue?”

“Yeah, and he’s with me.” Jason said loudly. “And if any of you have a problem with it, we can both leave.”

Tim ducked his head so that nobody could see his smile. Let them think he was shy, it was worth Jason’s defense and the arm around him that tucked him half under his cape.

“That won’t be necessary. Stray is welcome here.” Dinah said firmly. “Kid Flash, do you want to gear up?”

“Oh yeah!” A blur of movement and suddenly Wally was standing by Black Canary, dressed in bright yellow and adjusting his goggles. M’gan drifted over to stand on her other side, finally tearing her gaze away from Tim and Jason.

“Kaldur, Kon, are you two ready?”

“Any time, any place.” Kon cracked his knuckles as he moved to the center of the room.

“I am ready.” Kaldur stood beside him.

Huh. Looked like they were fighting in the large space of the cave. “Ready?” He asked Jason, softly.

Jason stepped away. He missed his warmth, even though he was already sweating under his layers. “Yep.” He grabbed his escrima sticks and swung them in lazy circles alongside his body to loosen his wrists. “You?”

“No.” Tim sighed. 

Dinah laughed. “On your count then, Stray.”

He and Jason shared a look. Jason tilted his head, grinning. “On three?”

Tim nodded and took a step to the side, looking across at Aqualad and Superboy. He assessed their stances. Aqualad had already sunk into a defensive stance, not holding any weapons yet. Superboy was bouncing on his toes, fists held up into a boxer’s stance. “Three!” He shouted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note i am playing FAST AND LOOSE with canon so don't yell at me because YJ doesn't make sense. It will make sense in my timeline as it unfolds, I promise. But basically the YJ here is older and just about to outgrow the "young" part of YJ. I'm picturing them all being late teens here, if not into early twenties for Kaldur. Lots and lots of handwaving sorry and also sorry for any OOCness?? Like I said I've seen like 4 episodes of YJ sorry guys  
> Get ready for a cool fight scene next because I just want to look at Tim and Jason's dynamic and see how they fight together and just establish a few things there but MOSTLY Dinah just wants to see how Tim can fight because she's only ever seen him on Barbara's couch eating pizza  
> This chapter and the next two-ish are all going to be with YJ seeing how Jason fits in with them and Tim doing tech support and establishing a few lil plot points  
> Also keep an eye on PartnersPartners for deleted scenes and scraps probably??  
> Also also feel free to come chatter with me on the blue hellsite at InAweOfDiana  
> Third also is leave a comment and let me know what you're thinking and what you liked and if I made any typos or heinous fuckups of canon!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fairly detailed fight scene with a few minor injuries, but nothing too graphic this time

Fighting with Jason was easy. They’d sparred together a few times, but most of their knowledge of each others moves came from opposite ends of the battlefield. They knew each others preferred moves and skill sets, knowing how to use them as easily as counteract them.

It wasn’t quite like fighting with Selina, he noted to himself. For Selina, he played a supporting role. Jason usually played a distracting role for Bruce, so he knew it was probably different for him too. But fighting on his own merits, building his own terms as he worked intuitively with Jason was incredible. 

Jason’s moves were just as flashy and distracting and loud as when he fought with Batman, distracting from Tim’s stealthier, more acrobatic movements. He used Jason’s distractions to build up momentum for a solid strike or to relocate across the training floor. 

Superboy and Aqualad picked up on that fairly quickly, but then Jason threw out a handful of smoke bombs in a broad circle to disguise his movements.

Tim grinned to himself when Superboy began coughing and Aqualad began swiping at his eyes. He took a second to pull the stretchy neck of his base layer up over his mouth and nose. The special fabric would help filter out the irritants in the smoke.

Jason whooped with exuberance as he jumped backwards into a sloppy handspring to get away from Aqualad’s-- what even were those? Glowing amorphous blades sliced through the air as Aqualad steadily approached Jason.

“Trade ya!” Jason called.

Tim struck Superboy with all his weight and momentum narrowed into his heels, right between his shoulder blades.

Superboy cried out, more in anger than pain, he was fairly sure, and swung around with swinging fists.

Tim dodged out of the way. That hadn’t even slowed him down! That had knocked the wind out of Batman’s sails the week before and that hadn’t even made Superboy blink!

“Please!” He scrambled on fingers and toes, staying low, out of easy punching range.

“Brace!” Jason called.

Tim dropped to his elbows and knees and Jason used his back as a springboard to run and jump off of, coming down at Superboy with a yell.

Tim rolled onto his back, unsheathing his Kukri. He’d seen Aqualad’s course of movement and was ready for it. Aqualad didn’t flinch away from attacking a prone opponent, but Tim just caught his shining blades with his own. Then he kicked out with both feet to his solar plexus.

Aqualad grunted as he reeled, which gave Tim enough time to regain his feet and leap into movement.

It was exceedingly rare Tim got to use his kukri against an opponent who had even a vague idea of how to combat them. As such, he wasn’t the best at blade to blade combat like this, especially against an opponent who dual wielded as well, but he was nothing if not a quick learner.

He parried and blocked and quickly picked up on Aqualad’s tells for feinting. The taller boy was still more experienced than him though. Tim paid for the difference in ability with a cut to his shoulder and another to his hip. His armor caught the hip blow, but Aqualad had gotten lucky on his shoulder, striking just where his armor stopped. 

Neither of the boys let the spray of blood distract them.

“Kaldur! Watch it!” Black Canary called from the sidelines.

“Sorry.” Kaldur grunted to Tim as he locked their blades together.

“S’good.” Tim grunted back, backing away from the pressure where Kaldur was bearing down on him.

Suddenly his blades shifted and changed and  _ wrapped around Tim’s _ and Kaldur bared his teeth as he yanked Tim’s knives free from his grip, sending them spinning across the room.

“Robin, a little help!” Tim yelped, backing away.

“Little busy!”

Tim threw a few knives, just to build distance between them.

Kaldur followed him doggedly, batting each knife away with his… water swords? Waterblades. Seriously? That wasn’t fair. His whip wouldn’t do anything against those!

He decided to take the risk of exposing his back and ran.

Jason had Superboy’s arms in a pin, holding him against his front.

Oh  _ perfect _ . 

“On your six!” Jason grunted a warning.

“Take a knee!” Tim dove between their legs, throwing himself onto his back as he went.

“Dude!” Superboy yelped as Kaldur’s attack for Tim was suddenly facing him.

Tim struck out, kicking the back of Superboy’s knee.

Jason drove his weight downward with a grunt, shoving Superboy down, hopefully on top of Kaldur.

Tim grabbed at Jason’s bright yellow utility belt and rolled away. He extended the staff as he crouched in the dissipating smoke, analyzing the scene in front of him.

“Shit.” Jason panted.

“Sorry.” Tim grimaced. Superboy had gotten free and now he and Kaldur were regrouping.

“Nah, he’s a slippery bastard.” Jason wiped at his face. His lip was bleeding.

“Any plans?” He murmured, slipping closer to Jason so they didn’t have to shout. 

“I mean, fastball special? Like how B did at Ivy last month?”

“That could work.” Tim offered. “Think you can throw me that far though?”

“Won’t know til we try.” Jason grabbed one of his escrima sticks from the ground.

-

Robin and Stray made an excellent team, Dinah reflected. They were both quick witted and analytic to the point where neither one fell behind. If one or the other figured something out, they would call out in clipped phrases and terse codewords. They were equally quick on their feet, though Stray seemed more prone to the acrobatics that Nightwing was famous for, while Robin tended to steal the spotlight like Nightwing tended to do, letting Stray escape from view with his distractions. Robin had more of a brawler style, keeping track of both Kaldur and Kon as well as the orientation of the battleground with ease. He wasn’t shy about incorporating in his surroundings either, which was impressive. He’d jumped up off of a couch earlier and come down with an overhand blow on Kon that had left the other boy staggering. 

Stray had the same awareness of the field that Robin did, using it against Kon as easily as Robin did. It was a little harder for him to twist the field to his advantage against Kaldur, but he still managed it when dodging and dodging and dodging out of the way of Kaldur’s blows, enough to irritate the other boy. He’d drawn him into pursuit and then nearly run him into a wall when he simply ran up it and flipped over his head. 

Robin had more gadgets, but Stray wasn’t slacking in that department either. He was favoring the swords on his back, lethal looking kukri, while Robin used his fists.

Robin was bigger than Stray, which they used to their advantage. Sometimes Stray would slide behind the cover of his cape and sometimes Robin would give a knee or shoulder for Stray to springboard from. Kid Flash straight up cheered when Robin and Stray linked hands and Robin threw him at their simulated opponents. He was a whirl of fists and feet before he rolled away from the collapsing simulations, blades held neatly out to each side to avoid cutting himself.

Stray also wasn’t bad with a whip, she discovered. Kaldur had managed to disarm him and Stray was running again. Kaldur would have him dead to rights if only he could catch him; he was bigger, stronger, and more experienced, but Stray was slippery. Robin let out a ringing cackle when Stray pulled out his whip and tripped Kaldur with it.

Stray wasn’t used to combat like this, she noted. He was breathing hard and bleeding from several minor cuts. His limbs were starting to shake with nerves and fatigue but it looked like Kon and Kaldur were just warming up. Kon managed to catch him by the hand and yanked hard until he could grab him around the torso to throw him at Jason. The two landed in a painful heap with a grunt from Robin and a yelp from Stray. Overkill from Kon, she noted, but understandable. He was probably happy he finally managed to catch the younger boy.

“Finally, got em pinned down.” Kon grunted, wiping at his face.

“Good work.” Kaldur advanced. “Yield.” He shaped one of his water blades into a long sword, pointing it at Robin, who had scrambled into a crouch over Stray.

He looked murderous. “Eat my ass, fishboy!” With a quick movement, he swept Kaldur’s feet out from under him while at the same time batting his blade away with the armored back of his glove. Several smoke bombs went off at once, obscuring the fighting figures. 

When it cleared, she could see Robin and Aqualad locked in close, furious combat. Robin was fighting Aqualad’s water blades with two batarangs. Ten minutes ago, she would have called the idea ludicrous, but he was matching Aqualad blow for blow. His anger was driving him, but it was also blinding him. He’d already attained several shallow cuts on his forearms and fingers from Kaldur’s weapons and was taking too many risks with wild attacks. So he had a temper that was directly related to how smart he fought. That wasn’t good, she thought to herself. It could be an insurmountable flaw, letting your anger blind you.

Superboy stood over Stray, one foot placed on his stomach as he idly watched the other two fight. Stray was prone, not fighting it, but was nursing his left hand. It was hard to tell with all the black, but she was pretty sure he was bleeding. 

“Stop.” She called.

Kaldur and Robin both froze and backed away from each other. Kaldur stowed his weapons but Robin stood ready, hackles still raised. 

“Stray, are you alright? Wally, get a first aid kit.” She kept an eye on them as she moved, wary of them jumping back into a fight. Kaldur should have enough self-restraint not to, but Robin was still angry.

But Robin turned at her words, dropping his fighting stance.

Superboy looked down, surprised, and backed away.

Stray sat up with a wince. “I’m fine. Just cut myself.” He carefully dropped one of his wickedly thin knives from his bleeding hand.

“Let me see.” She almost had to wrestle with Robin for space at his side. 

“I’ll be fine.” He repeated. “It’s shallow.”

“Sorry dude.” Kon grimaced, correctly guessing it was likely his fault.

“S’fine. I’ve gotten worse from Robin.” Stray’s smile was tight with pain, but genuine enough.

Robin rolled his eyes. “Clearly you’re fine if you’re blaming me for it.”

Stray stripped his gauntlet and glove off, baring thin, shallow cuts across the meat of his fingers and the heel of his palm, trailing up his thumb. “I just need some-- oh, thanks.” He jerked slightly in surprise when Wally shoved a fistful of gauze in his face.

“Here, let me do it before you cut off circulation to your whole hand.” Robin batted his hand out of the way and grabbed the gauze. “And gimme some alcohol.”

Wally began dousing spare gauze in alcohol.

Dinah backed away, letting the two boys fix Stray up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like writing fight scenes  
> hmu w any typos  
> leave a comment and kisses to everyone who is commenting I appreciate the support <3


	9. Chapter 9

Tim stretched his hand gingerly, testing the give of the bandages. He’d sequestered himself away by the computers with an energy bar in lieu of training further. It wasn’t like the training was for him anyway. He was more than happy to just sit in the corner where nobody was looking at him and do his computer things.

But.

Fighting with Jason had been fun. Exhilarating, at the times when they were perfectly in sync with each other. Their skill sets complimented each other’s nicely, though he had a feeling they would have been more successful against opponents who weren’t superpowered with years of experience on them both.

It had been both interesting and exhausting; he wasn’t used to fighting for that long. Most of his fights were brief bursts that ended with his opponents unconscious on the floor of whatever museum or bank he was in.

He turned his attention to the task at hand. It looked like the computers were finally ready for him.

He swept through mountains of files once he was fully integrated into Nightwing’s computers. So first he needed to build a usable desktop that wasn’t just buried in loose files. Dick was a monster to have this many icons on his home screen. After a few minutes of looking, it was obvious to Tim what the problem was. All of Dick’s platforms and programs were needlessly complicated, somewhat convoluted, and horrendously messy. Half of everything wasn’t labeled, simply titled “untitled_1” to “untitled_3468” and the other half was labeled things like “fdfkljghdfg” or “awrcf34crwef”.

Selina didn’t generally condone murder, but he was sure she’d make an exception.

If she ever found out, anyway.

So the issue here wasn’t that Jason was that much worse with computers than Dick, it was that Dick’s computers were a fucking mess. He knew Barbara had taught him better than this. All he really needed to do was tidy up a majority of the computer, organize files into a vague semblance of order, and add labels. 

It felt like no time at all passed before he was looking at a clean, smooth interface. Shortcuts to keyword searches through the files were lined up on the left side of the main screen and he arranged all of the programs on the right side. Some of the programs he had to go in and edit, but most of them looked like they’d been programmed by Barbara or Bruce. He recognized Barbara’s coding signature (ORACLE) almost as easily as his own (redbird), and knew Bruce’s without having to even think (Batman). Blessedly few of the programs were Dick’s handiwork (DickWasHere). There were a few that were coded by, presumably, other members of the Justice League. There was a forensics program coded by aroundtheworld that reminded him of police CSI programs and a navigation system by Ace that worked perfectly fine but the whole program ran in different shades of green. He uploaded a few of his own programs that he knew Jason was more familiar with, coded by himself and Babs.

Perfect. He was pretty sure Jason could take it from here. He could provide support via text or synced in through the backdoor he’d added for himself. Now to snook around through Dick’s files.

If he were a paranoid computer-savvy vigilante with secrets to hide, where would he hide them? 

He scrolled through the maze of files and struck gold. He tapped it open gleefully.

He immediately made a face and blushed bright red. He tapped out of it quickly, but it was too late. He never wanted to know that much about Dick’s sexual preferences. Oh god.

He ripped his goggles off and rubbed at his eyes with his knuckles until colors were swimming behind his eyelids.

“You okay there?”

He had to blink a few times before the colors receded enough for him to see Jason and Kaldur beside him, both of them looking at him funny.

“Yeah, I’m good. Nightwing’s just a dick.” He sighed.

Jason barked out a laugh.

“That’s nothing new.” Kaldur deadpanned.

Tim almost addressed Jason by his name but bit it back just in time. “Robin, come here, I want to show you how I formatted things.”

Jason draped an arm along the back of the chair and braced his other hand on the armrest, leaning in over Tim’s shoulder. He listened intently as Tim explained the different programs and how he could port everything to his field computer.

“Huh. That’s not as bad as when ‘Wing showed me everything.” He frowned. “Can I try?”

“Yeah, go ahead.” Tim stood and Jason sat, peeling his gloves off. He tossed them to the side and began running through the different programs, exploring with the labels Tim had put in and found everything to be fairly intuitive. His understanding of things skyrocketed with just simple formats and labels and organization and Tim bit back his grin. He wasn’t as bad at computers as he had painted himself to be. He did grin when he watched the slump in his shoulders fade and his back straightened with confidence.

“Looks like you don’t need me after all.” Tim laughed, hopping up to sit on the desk.

Jason leaned back in the chair and returned his grin easily. “You ain’t getting off that easy. You’re my personal Geek Squad now.”

Tim laughed. “I figured. I can still sync everything up to run it from my computers at home if you run into anything you need a hand with.” 

“Good. I should be good though. Thanks dude.” He smiled and it was a little softer.

“This is good work.” Tim had forgotten Kaldur was there.

“Thanks man.” Tim swung his legs to get out some nervous energy. 

“How are things over here?” Dinah walked over, M’gann, Wally, and Kon trailing behind her.

“All done, I think.” Tim nodded at the screens where Jason was flying through programs and files now.

Dinah grinned. “It’s nice to have a Robin again.”

Jason snorted. “Yeah, yeah. Just ‘til he’s back, don’t get too used to it.”

“Aww, little baby wing doesn’t like us?” Wally teased, throwing himself down behind Jason in the computer chair, legs and shoulders awkwardly against the armrests as he wiggled.

“I hate you.” Jason deadpanned.

“Just wait til we introduce you to wheely-chair races!” Wally laughed.

Dinah cleared her throat pointedly. “Which will be in theory only, considering they are expressly against the rules, right?”

Wally let his head loll back and he smiled sweetly up at her. “Yeah, of course!”

M’gann slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter.

Dinah shook her head, pressing her lips together to hide her smile. “If Tornado catches you again, I’m not saving you.” She pulled out her phone and walked away, obviously removing herself from the situation so she couldn’t be blamed for any escalation.

Sometimes retreat was the wiser option, Tim thought to himself as Kaldur and Wally began arguing about wheely-chair races

Jason ignored Wally for all of a minute and a half before standing up and flipping the chair over to dump Wally on the floor. The chair went flying and so did M’gann and Kon, jumping up into the air. Kaldur ducked back away and Tim rolled backwards off the desk to take cover behind it as Jason and Wally scuffled.

“Hey, what was that for?!”

“Getting all up in my personal space, you creep!”

“I was just being friendly! Hey, no hair pulling, ow!”

“Well don’t try and stick your fingers in my ears then!”

Tim rolled his eyes with a grin.

“Get ‘im Walls!” Kon cheered from overhead.

“Go Robin!” M’gann hollered.

“I am removing myself from the situation.” Kaldur turned on his heel and walked away.

Following him seemed to be the safest option, so he did.

Kaldur sequestered himself in the small kitchen and didn’t bat an eye at Tim following him. He perched on the counter as Kaldur began rummaging through the fridge. Tim swallowed a laugh when he saw the chore chart taped on the fridge. Brightly colored magnets were on different portions of a chore wheel. The Aqualad magnet was on “dinner” and the Kid Flash magnet was on “perimeter checks”. Superboy had “vacuuming” and Miss Martian had “trash patrol”. There were a few logos he didn’t recognize, a red arrow and a green bow on “disinfect locker rooms” and “clean garage” respectively. He recognized the Nightwing emblem off to one side in a square labeled “jail” and grinned. It was cute. Domestic, really. He smiled again when Dinah wandered through the kitchen with a new Robin magnet and advised Kaldur on spices.

Tim could see Jason fitting in well here. He knew he would like it and would work well with them if they could ever get past the fact that he wasn’t Dick.

He felt bad for the selfish little voice in his head hoping that they never gave him the chance. He didn’t want Jason to be so far away from Gotham. From him. 

“Hey, whoever brought the lambo you better get to the garage before Roy blows it up.” A blond girl walked in with a few duffel bags, texting on her phone. She gave Dinah a wave on her way to the stairs.

“Ah shit, fuckin’ Roy.” Jason forgot about his squabble with Wally and hurried back to the garage.

Dinah sat at the dining table and worked on fancy vigilante paperwork on her tablet and kept advising Kaldur on spices as he scowled his way through cooking fish without drying it out. Wally and Kon moved on to playing a computer game as M’gann followed after the blonde girl. Nobody paid any attention to Tim, which was exactly how he liked it. Or rather, exactly how he used to like it. He didn’t fit in here.

It kind of made his stomach hurt on top of how tired he was from fighting and the blooming bruises across his body. He pulled out his phone and thumbed the display open with the hand that wasn’t wrapped in bandages. Selina had mentioned Harley was up this way today; maybe she could give him an out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter before shit gets real whatuppppp I'm so glad I'm finally getting some momentum on these  
> Possibly expect another chapter tomorrow (Tuesday) but then the soonest after that I'll have some time to get the next chapter up will be onnnn Friday? I think?  
> Leave me a comment and let me know what you liked y'all <3 <3


	10. Chapter 10

Dick had only been undercover for two months when everything went to shit.

Tim rang the bell to Barbara’s apartment and waited. It was time for their weekly hacking lesson. Well, computer lessons. But Tim was rapidly outpacing her in the engineering department, so they typically spent more time discussing programming, which usually devolved into “Oh, so if you ever get hacked here’s the fastest way to backhack them” or “hey I found a new way to bounce my IP but I can’t replicate it” or “here’s the fastest way to get into the GCPD CC network!”

He didn’t hear anything from inside, so he rang it again. 

He looked down at his phone, double checking that it was Thursday. It was.

He rang the bell again and finally heard movement. Heavy footsteps. She must be tired. She opened the door and Tim wanted to wince. There were dark bags under her eyes and her hair was a frizzy mess. She was wearing her compression leotard she wore under her batsuit and a cardigan.

“Oh, hey Tim.” She smiled. “Sunday already?” 

“Babs, you stink.” Tim said bluntly. 

She looked down at herself and then at her watch. “Shit. I lost track of time. Sorry kid. Make yourself at home.” She grabbed a datapad and headed for the bathroom.

Tim made a face. She wasn’t usually this distractible. Though, with Dick gone, it made sense that she would help pick up the slack. Tim dumped his bag in the office and began snooping around the different files and papers that were strewn about. There was a huge map of Gotham pinned up on the wall, but now there was one of Bludhaven pinned neatly next to it. Little blue pushpins were strewn over it. Tim took a moment to note all of Nightwing’s safehouses on his Stray phone before going back to snooping. The Gotham map was way more interesting, a mess of different colored pushpins.

“Who’s the green?” He asked as soon as Barbara came back. She was fighting her hair into a braid and he sighed. “You’re going to hurt your hair. Sit.” He ordered, snatching the brush from her. 

She laughed at the face he was making but sat down in one of her low-backed computer chairs. “New player B’s tracking. I wanted to see if his movements matched up with the Joker’s movements, but no dice.”

“He got a name yet?” Tim gently combed through her hair with his fingers, thinning it before he began detangling. 

“Nah. Jason’s been calling him the Jokester, but that’s too close to Joker.” She shrugged. “My vote is on Sphinx, and Kate keeps arguing for the Riddlemaster.”

Tim thought. He hadn’t heard of anyone on the underground side of things whose movements matched up. He hadn’t really heard about anyone new either.

“He leaves these weird riddles around that we have to solve or he collapses parking garages or whatever.” Barbara sighed and rubbed at her face.

“Weird. And you haven’t seen him?”

“Nah. B’s been handling his case, but he hasn’t made any appearances or anything. It’s driving him crazy.” She yawned.

“Hashtag: Only In Gotham.” Tim said solemnly. 

She laughed. “You’re so right. You want pizza or chinese?”

“I want thai.”

“Your wish is my command.” She hit the speed dial on her phone.

An hour later found them bent over the innards of a computer they were building. They were trying to see if they could build a computer that you could fit in a bracer, superhero cartoon style.

“If Iron Man can do it, I can totally do it!” Barbara had proclaimed. It was something of a pet project between them.

They worked on it until Barbara got a message on her computer, the one reserved for Bat activity. She huffed at it but rolled over to it anyway. She got up and added another purple pin to the Gotham map. “More Joker activity, looks like.” She sighed. “I’ll check this out tonight, I guess. You steer clear, got it?”

He nodded. He didn’t want to go anywhere near the Joker. He didn’t know how Harley did it. He was violent and unpredictable and Tim wanted to stay as far away from that as possible. He’d have to ask Selina to talk to Harley. If he was really getting up to something again in Gotham, Tim wanted all the forewarning he could get. He tugged his phone out. “Be careful.” He warned Barbara.

She smiled. “I’m always careful.”

They worked on their computer a while longer before Barbara had to go get some sleep before her patrol that night. Tim hugged her at the door as he usually did, smiling at the way she always smelled like snickerdoodles.

She squeezed him tightly and ruffled his hair when they parted. “Let me know when you get home safe, okay?”

“Like you didn’t just slip a tracker onto me.” He teased.

She laughed. “Guilty. Seeya Timmy!”

He waved as he took off down the hall. If he’d known what would happen that night, he would have savoured that hug for another few moments. He would have turned and gotten another look at her standing in the doorway watching him go because that was the last time he would ever see her standing on her own two feet.

-

Jason leaned back in the computer chair, crossing his arms. On the screen in front of him were lines of names. He’d found a hidden folder in Dick’s private drive, bigger than anything else on Dick’s hard drive. It was pretty obvious what he was looking at. They’d been separated by location; Metropolis, Central City, Gotham. He’d clicked into Gotham, of course, to be greeted by lines of names. He recognized some of them, but there were ten names he didn’t know for every one he did.

**Arkham, Amadeus**

**Boles, Frank**

**Bullock, Harvey**

**Chill, Joseph**

**Crane, Jonathan**

**Dawes, Rachel**

**Dent, Harvey**

**Drake, Jack (Diseased)**

**Drake, Janet (Diseased)**

**Drake-Kyle, Timothy**

**Ducard, Hanri**

**Earle, William**

**Elliot, Thomas**

**Falcone, Carmine**

**Flass, Arnold**

**Fox, Lucius**

**Gordon, Barbara**

**Gordon, James**

**Haywood, Sheila**

**Hill, Hamilton**

**Kane, Katherine**

**Kyle, Selina**

**Loeb, Gillian**

**Maroni, Salvatore**

**Pennyworth, Alfred**

**Quinzel, Harleen**

**Todd, Catherine**

**Todd, Jason**

**Todd, Willis**

**Vale, Victoria**

**Wayne, Bruce**

**Wayne, Martha (Diseased)**

**Wayne, Thomas (Diseased)**

He knew what this was and he wasn’t happy. Bruce’s stupid fucking paranoia rubbed off on Dick to the point where he compulsively built files on every detail of a person’s life that he could get his hands on. Anyone who interacted with their family, any big players in town, anyone who had ever hurt the citizens of Gotham, and everyone important to the people on those lists. Sick curiosity twisted in his stomach as he clicked on his own name.

A navigation screen popped up on the top left as dozens of documents and images sprang to life. His school transcripts, his school attendance record, his passport, his ID card, his fingerprints, his medical record, his entire life spread across the screens in front of him. He clicked out of each item individually. Dick seemed to have every inch of his life on record, including his adoption papers and foster home record and his birth certificate. Wait, two birth certificates.

They were both for Todd, Jason Peter, but one was the one he was familiar with that said Todd, Catherine, and one that said Haywood, Sheila.

Who the hell was Sheila Haywood?

-

Batgirl swung through the night like an angel on high. Getting to soar through the air like Nightwing, getting to fly through the night like Batman was incredible. She would never get tired of it.

A giant bat was being projected across the clouds behind her and in a moment of whimsey she imagined how she must look swooping across the skyline with a giant bat behind her.

Bruce was tracking down the Sphinx-Riddlemaster-Jokester, Kate was chasing after the Scarecrow and Robin was away, which left this for her. She’d gotten the coordinates from her father, who’d given her a tight frown and a warning to be careful. 

“Looks like more Joker activity. We found laughing gas at the sight. Be careful.”

“I’m always careful.” She’d smiled as she’d stepped off the roof.

She shot Bruce a text when she got there, letting him know her lead. 

The building didn’t look occupied. She didn’t see or hear anyone and the place looked like it was abandoned. In Gotham, that was a 50-50 chance if it was actually abandoned or not. With the luck of the Bats, it was more like 10-90.

She slipped out her staff and extended it quietly. She slipped into the building quietly, keeping low and quiet. She sniffed the air and smelled lingering hints of Joker gas. It had dissipated enough that it wasn’t harmful. The Joker’s goons were probably dissipated enough not to be harmful either.

Good. Maybe there was finally some luck on her side.

There was a low whistle and she instinctively threw herself forward into a roll. Something clipped the back of her head as she went, making black spots burst across her vision.

What was that she’d been saying about luck? She took it back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave me a comment! Expect a new chapter either Friday or Saturday depending on how much editing I get done today


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's where the violence tags start coming into play. I put a triple asterisk (***) where it all starts going down, so skip from there if you're squeamish or squicked, notes at the end for what you're skipping  
> This chapter CW for discussion/depiction of domestic abuse, victim blaming, and a fairly gorey fight scene

Stray moved through the night like a shadow, skittering down the rusted fire escape with the confidence that only a teenage boy hopped up on adrenaline could have. He jumped the last story from the fire escape. His movements were fluid and soundless and Harley gave him a thumbs up from where she waited. 

“I didn’t hear a thing!” She praised. “That’s so cool! You’re as quiet as Batsy!”

Tim grinned. “Ready?” Selina and Pamela were having a date night and Tim was bored, so he was tagging along with Harley. The work she did was a fair bit more dangerous than the work Tim did when he was with Selina. To reflect that, he was a fair bit more geared up than he typically was. He was still wearing his usual dark jeans, but instead of his hoodie he was wearing his leather jacket that was a little bit sturdier. The sleeves were a little shorter, less likely to catch on his climbing gauntlets, the body more fitted to his torso. He still wore his bullwhip on his right hip, handle perfectly placed for him to grab, and wore several braces of throwing knives on each thigh. They were wickedly thin and perfectly weighted, the flat handles layered over each other just so. His lockpicks were in his left boot and his extra hacking tools were in his right. He was wearing an extra layer of his body armor on his chest and back and had opted for his full cowl. It was a little more annoying, stiffer and not convertible into a hat, but it offered greater projection to his neck and skull. It had stronger satellite arrays built into the ears that stuck up unmistakably from his head. At the back of his belt, laid longways, was his collapsible bo staff he’d swiped from Robin. Across his back were his kukri, angled so he could draw one from his right shoulder and the other from his left hip with either hand.

Since he was hanging out with Harley, he was also carrying his final weapon. It wasn’t very stealthy, so he didn’t get to use it much. But. to be fair, when he was hanging out with Harley, stealth didn’t matter much. He rested the shaft of the mace against his shoulder as he walked, rather than swinging it alongside him. The head of it was a giant cat’s head with glittering jewels in the eye sockets. It was dull black carbon fiber with ridges of spikes protruding as whiskers and ears and lethally sharp teeth bared in a gruesome snarl.

“Lookin’ good!” Harley whistled. “You sure you don’t want a tail?” Harley was dressed a bit more conservatively than usual too. Long pants, long sleeves, red leather jacket. More of her skin was covered than he’d ever seen before. He thought he knew why. There were bandages peeking out of the neck of her shirt and dark rings of bruises around her wrists. Selina wouldn’t be happy about the Joker’s treatment of her. Neither would Pam. They’d both come to be oddly protective of Harley, but the bubbly woman would rarely let them express their concerns.

Tim snorted at the thought of wearing his whip like a tail. “I’m good, thanks.” He slid his mace into the golf bag mounted on the back of the motorcycle. It barely fit around Harley’s bats and pipes and various other bludgeoning weapons.

“Okay, well, let me know if you change your mind! It would be so cute!” Harley straddled her motorcycle. It was a big, gaudy thing. It was bright white, spray painted with the suits and numbers of playing cards. A large J was on the front. Harley looked comfortable atop it. It was plenty large enough for Tim too, and he took a seat behind her.

“Hold on tight doll! First stop, milkshakes!” Harley cranked the motorcycle and Tim hastily grabbed onto her. She drove like a madwoman, careening down streets and alleys alike, heedless of traffic but mindful of pedestrians and cyclists. 

They wandered the city for several hours. Harley was checking in on different caches and safehouses seemingly at random, typing away at a spreadsheet in her phone and sending off texts like crazy. They got milkshakes, a pizza, chili dogs, and slurpees over the course of the night. Tim was unpleasantly full, but it was his own fault for letting Harley drag him into a bet on who could eat the most chili dogs. It might have even been worth it if he’d won, but he hadn’t.

Harley teases him as they walk. She’s checking in on a number of warehouses up and down the dock. She was idly twirling a baseball bat as they walked.

Tim carried his mace propped on his shoulder. He probably wouldn’t get to use it, but Harley might show him some more tips and tricks with it. It had been his favorite Hanukhah gift from her and it had made the following January interesting as she taught him how to use it (as well as tutoring him through his biology and chemistry classes). 

“So what’s next?” He asked.

“Takin’ inventory on some stuff. Warehouse 37, over this way.” She pointed with her bat.

There were no police or security around. The few people he did see nodded deferentially to Harley.

That all changed when they snaked through a few service roads and approached warehouse 37. It was bustling with activity. Harley frowned. “This ain’t planned.” She murmured, picking up the pace.

The huge garage door to the warehouse was half open, revealing several rows of cars and stacks of crates. Men and women in ill-fitting suits and halloween masks hurried around, replacing parts on several black SUVs that were riddled with bullet holes and covered in dents and slashes. There was also a few stolen motorcycles with bat emblems across the front. Tim felt bad for them. Bruce hit twice as hard when he had to go after his pilfered property.

Tim stiffened when he heard laughter.

Harley’s back went rigid in front of him and she broke into a run.

Tim hung back, out of sight. He had managed to stay off the Joker’s radar thus far and he wanted to stay that way. In his time training with Selina she had drilled into him the importance of careful planning. 

The Joker was too unpredictable to plan around. He seemed to go out of his way to react in the way that made the least sense for his circumstances and he had a horrible talent for twisting any set of circumstances to his advantage, no matter how stacked the odds were.

Tim had no interest in going up against him whatsoever, but if Harley was this on edge, he was concerned. He engaged the commline with a quick tap to his integrated earpiece.

“Mista Jay!” Harley hurried to his side with a broad smile. He could hear the tension there. “Puddin’, what’s goin’ on? I ain’t seen anything about it on my phone.” She latched onto his arm, pressing into his side.

“Harley, darling!” Joker spun. His grin was wide and manic. Wider and more manic than usual. He was splattered in blood, long drops that indicated high velocity impacts. He grabbed Harley tightly and dipped her into a hard, possessive kiss. His fingers dug into her waist tightly enough that Harley tried to flinch away from it. When he pulled away, her waist was bloody where his fingernails had dug into her flesh. “Wait til you see what I’ve got!” He was giddy.

Harley smiled, but it was strained. “What’s up Puddin’, how can I help?”

The Joker laughed airily. “You know the phrase a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush? Well, how much is two in the hand worth? I was just wondering about it, but now I’m down to the one, you know.” His eyes were crazed.

The hair on the back of Tim’s neck stood on end.

“Honey, no! You said you was done with that! I thought you let em go!”

“Oh yes, of course, I’ll let them fly away, if they can!” He laughed shrilly. “Of course, I already let the girl go, at your insistence. That’s your Christmas present for the year, I hope you know. I really didn’t want to let her go, but you insisted.”

Harley stood stock still.

“Now, what do you say to daddy? I let her go, just for you.” The Joker’s voice was loud in Tim’s ear as he leaned in close to Harley.

“Thank you daddy.” Harley’s voice was a whisper.

The Joker kissed her again, hard.

Tim’s stomach rolled as he heard Harley whimper in pain over the comm line. Barbara. This had to be why she had dropped off the radar, this had to be why the bats had closed ranks, weren’t talking on any channel he had access to. 

“Puddin, please.” Harley broke the kiss. “I thought you was gonna let em both go. You know Batsy won’t like it.”

The Joker threw his arms out with another horrible laugh. “That’s the point, darling!”

Harley avoided getting hit with one of his flailing hands by dodging back, out of range. “J, I thought we agreed we wouldn’t do that no more!” 

“Hah, you decided  _ you _ weren’t gonna do that no more.” The Joker giggled. “I made no such, hm, agreements.”

“He’s a kid, J!” Harley’s voice was sharp.

The Joker spun on his heel and advanced on Harley, pressing a finger to her lips. “Uh, uh, uh!” He trilled. “Good little girls don’t speak to their daddies like that!”

Harley changed tactics. “Please puddin’, he’s just a kid. I know you got beef with Batsy, but we ain’t gotta bring another kid into this!”

Another bird. Another kid. Was this what had happened to the Bats? Had Jason been hurt? No, he couldn’t have been, Harley would have told him. But Harley was talking about a he. With Dick undercover and Batman accounted for, who else could it be but Jason? If the Joker had him, Harley definitely would have told him.

But then he thought back to her behavior over the last few months. The last year or so, really. The increased amounts of bandages and bruises, her more concealing clothes, her newfound skittishness around anyone that wasn’t Tim, Selina, or Pamela. Harley would have told him if she’d known anything.

Harley would have told him. Right?

Right…?

***

He tapped the side of his goggles and scanned the warehouse. He didn’t see any heat signatures that indicated any prisoners. 

The Joker grabbed Harley’s face hard enough that she whimpered. “If he’s old enough to fight, he’s old enough to die!” He laughed in her face and then used his grip on her to shove her to the ground, stalking away.

Every hair on Tim’s body was standing on end now. Something in his chest screamed that something was very wrong. He hadn’t even known that Jason was back in Gotham!

Harley scrambled to her knees and grabbed the Joker’s hand before he could walk away. “Please Jay, for me!” She pleaded. Her voice was shaking now.

He ripped his hand free and backhanded her savagely. 

The men and women working had stopped. All of them were still, watching the Joker and Harley.

“This! Is! His! Punishment!” The Joker punctuated each word with a kick to her ribs.

She cried out with each kick, a tiny, pained sound. 

The Joker stood over her, breathing hard and staring down at her.

Harley pushed herself up shakily. She had her back to Tim, but he could hear her starting to cry over the connection.

The Joker swooped down and Harley flinched away. He caressed her face, grin not dimming in the slighted. “Now look what you made me do. Why do you have to make me hurt you? Next time you’ll be better for me, right?” He crooned.

Tim covered his mouth with one hand. The chili dogs and pizza were not sitting well with the clench of anxiety in his stomach.

Harley nodded weakly and the Joker kissed her again as some sort of twisted reward. Then he moved away from her and began yelling. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

Harley twisted to look over her shoulder. Her eyeliner was streaming in lines down her cheeks and her chin was wobbling. Her lipstick was smeared across her mouth from his rough kisses. In that moment, she looked so small and scared. She covered her mouth with one hand as she sobbed. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She was looking straight at Tim. “I’ll do better.”

Tim felt like someone had dumped ice water over him. He wanted to throw up.

“I’ll do better.” She promised, staggering to her feet. She grabbed her bat and turned her back on Tim. “Where’ve you got the kid, J?” She asked softly. Her bat trailed from her hand as she staggered forward.

He giggled without looking back. “Out closer to Newark. I’m glad you’re finally getting with the p-” His words were cut off when Harley smashed her bat into the side of his head. The spray of blood was lackluster at best as the Joker staggered forward and fell to his knees. 

Tim was on his feet in an instant, gripping his mace tightly.

Guns started going off all around him. All of them were aimed at Harley. None of them were paying Tim any attention.

Ten opponents, not including the Joker. He was on the ground and Harley was running at several men with a scream of rage.

Tim wasn’t gentle with his mace. It crunched unpleasantly under his hand every time it impacted against flesh and bone, completely different from the wood and foam targets he was used to. The blood was also new, hot against his face where it splattered. He gagged when he felt it on his lips and took a precious second to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. Soon the diamond eyes in the mace were glittering red with blood. If his leather jacket and jeans weren’t so dark, he’d look like as much of a crime scene as Harley did. He took out four opponents with sneak attacks before he caught Harley’s attention.

“Run kid!” She screamed. “I’ll take care’a things here!” Her bat splintered with her next hit.

The Joker was crawling away from her as fast as he could, blood dripping down over his face.

“Catch!” He yelled back and threw his mace as hard as he could.

She caught it clumsily and spun on her heel. Her hair whipped around her and she’d lost her leather jacket somewhere. Her white shirt was stained with blood and he understood quite keenly then why she’d stuck to red and black for so many years. But this was scarier, the cotton candy pink and soft blue harshly accented by the spray of blood and blooming bruises. She was terrifying. 

He turned and ran back the way they came to where she’d parked the motorcycle. He had to get to Newark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skipped from asterisks:  
> Harley tries to get the Joker to give up on his plans and he beats her. He forces her to apologize to him, but she directs her apology to Tim instead. She gets Jason's location from the Joker before attacking him. Tim helps her, seeing that she's severely outnumbered, and eventually passes off his mace to her. She tells him to leave and he does, leaving her to deal with the Joker.  
> -  
> My new favorite comment I've ever received is "I can't believe you just told us all to get rekt" as if I haven't been setting this up and hinting at this since chapter one :3c  
> Please leave me a comment and yell at me for being an asshole, they're my lifeblood tbh but big kisses and much love to everyone that has been commenting and keeping me going <3 <3 <3  
> I have the next 6k words written so at this point I'm just editing and it's more or less good to go. After that 6k I have a lot of rewriting and cutting to do, but I'm working the next few days, so probably keep an eye out for another chapter tomorrow?


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: this whole chapter is pretty violent but it starts getting bad after the triple asterisk (***) so stop reading there and chapter notes at the end again

He tapped through to Selina’s emergency communication line. “Catwoman!” He yelled as he ran. “I’m sending you a location! I need you here as soon as possible, Harley needs help!”

_ “Timothy, what’s going on?” _ Selina’s voice was cool.

“Harley needs help. She’s-- she’s fighting the Joker. He’s got Robin. I think he hurt Batgirl too.” His eyes were hot inside his goggles. He jumped onto the motorcycle and cranked it. The roar almost drowned out Selina’s reply.

_ “I’ll see if I can get ahold of Batman. You’re going after Robin?” _ She confirmed.

“Yeah. She told me to leave. I don’t think I could fight the Joker anyway.” His driving lessons hadn’t reached motorcycles yet, but he’d watched Harley do it enough and he knew how to ride a bike. He’d be fine. Probably. 

_ “Get to him as soon as you can. I’m on my way now. I’m trying to get ahold of Ivy, but I’m not getting any answer.” _ She sounded frustrated.  _ “I’m going to kill that fucking bastard.” _ She hissed.

Harley’s phone was still mounted on the front of the motorcycle and he hastily tapped through it to her GPS, looking for a Newark address. There were three. He’d have to try them all.

“Did you try Batman?” He asked, carefully kicking the motorcycle into gear. It jerked under him.

_ “They’re still locked down.” _ She said. There was a roar of a motor on her end of the line and she disconnected.

How fast could he make it to Newark, he wondered.

He fumbled with the controls for the first few miles, but quickly got the hang of it. He just wished he had a communication line for the YJ. He’d talk to Jason later about that. 

If he was still alive.

He had to pull over to throw up at that thought.

“ _ Timothy _ .” Selina’s voice connected to his earpiece after a half hour. Most of the bile taste had faded from his mouth and he was approaching Newark.

“Go ahead.” He was scared of moving too much. He’d already crashed twice. His leather jacket was the only thing that had saved him from road rash, but he was pretty sure one more crash would shave through what was left of his arm guards.

_ “Harley’s not here, neither is the Joker. I can’t get ahold of Batman. There’s multiple explosions in West Gotham; he’s probably there.” _

“The Bat network is locked down. I think Joker went after Batgirl and they closed down after that. I sent you the coordinates already for where he’s holding Jason in New Jersey. There’s three of them though.”

_ “I’ve met up with Ivy, we’re heading that way now. We’ll split up and we’ll each take a different location.” _

“I’ll take the farthest one then.” Tim winced as he blazed past a police car. “Can you get into my program for the police?”

_ “Will do. Ivy, take control while I take care of things.” _

The three arrived at the addresses almost simultaneously, thanks to Tim’s inexpert driving and Selina’s lack of care for traffic laws. His thermal scanners picked up six heat signatures. One of them was prone. Two of them were standing guard. One was on the roof on the helicopter pad, sitting in the cockpit. One of them was beating the prone figure with something. One of them was sitting to the side, watching the beating.

Tim was sure that if the helicopter on the roof weren’t on, he’d hear faint, maniacal laughter. His stomach turned over on itself when he wondered who was watching whom get beaten.

He tried to park the motorcycle discreetly, but once he slowed, the whole damn thing toppled over. He scrambled out of the way before it could trap his leg. He already hurt enough without adding to his aches.

“C, P, they’re at my location.” He activated his communication line.

_ “On my way.” _ Catwoman replied.  _ “Ivy, can you distract the police?” _

_ “On it.” _ Ivy’s voice was muffled by the wind.

Stray readied himself, taking stock of his weapons. He didn’t know if he could take out this many men. He didn’t know if Harley would be in shape to back him up once he got to her. He didn’t know if Jason would be in shape to back him up once he got to him. He didn’t know what these men were armed with. He didn’t know if he could take the Joker on his home turf. He didn’t know if he could get out of facing down against the Joker at all. 

He told himself that he didn’t know the answers, but the knot of tension told him that he knew very well what the answers were. If he ignored the odds against him, that meant they weren’t stacked, right?

He circled the building and scaled the wall with the climbing hooks on his boots and gauntlets. He was soundless, though he didn’t need to be, sneaking up on the helicopter. 

A woman in a badly fitted suit stood by the open cockpit of the helicopter, smoking while she took a buzzfeed quiz. There was an AK-47 on the seat.

***

Stray ghosted up behind her and had the body of his whip around her throat before she even knew what was happening. He tightened it viciously and dragged her backwards to keep her off balance, fighting against her own weight. The whip bit into his hands through his gauntlets where it was wrapped around his hands. He could only imagine how badly it hurt to have the treated leather biting into her trachea and larynx. 

She only struggled for a minute or so. Stray kept the pressure on her airway for another thirty seconds to be safe and then dragged her behind a series of vent pipes closer to the edge of the roof. He didn’t have any rope, so he’d have to hope she stayed out. He set a motion sensor on the bottom of her shoe so he’d at least have a heads up if she woke up.

Now two more guards and then the Joker.

He switched back to his thermal scanner, looking down through the roof.

The Joker was still beating whomever was on the ground. They were trying to crawl away, but obviously having trouble. The person in the chair was now sprawled on the ground, one of the guards crouching over them. The other guard was doing something on the other side of the room.

He slipped down the stairs and down a hall, following the sounds of fleshy smacks and cries of pain. He crouched down low and drew his kukri. He slowly peeked around the corner with one eye.

A muscled man in another badly fitted suit was on top of Harley, knee pressed into her back and lifting her cuffed hands up at a painful angle that shoved her face into the dirty floor. She was crying, heavy sobs mixed with wet coughs, muffled against the ground.

He wanted to gag looking at her. 

Somewhere along the line, her clothes had been changed. Before, she’d been wearing tight black pants and a long sleeved shirt, almost all of her skin entirely covered. Now she was wearing what looked like a shiny purple bikini that bared all of the flesh of her legs, arms, and torso.

Bruises in every color of healing painted up and down her back and legs. Fresh wounds wept blood alongside partially healed wounds that had been forcibly ripped open. Popped stitches puckered the edges of some of the lines of cuts that arched around fresh, ugly tattoos. There were even burns, angry red splashes across her shoulders and thighs.

But as badly as she was injured, it was nothing compared to Jason.

He was openly sobbing underneath the Joker as he brought down a bloody crowbar onto the point of his elbow.

He yelled in pain and Tim heard a sickening crack.

Jason’s Robin uniform had been literally cut away, with little regard to the fact that he had still been inside. His fingers were bloody where he dug them into the dirty cement floor in a vain attempt to drag himself away. His back was just a bloody mass of flesh. The skin there had been literally beaten off of him as well as some of the flesh. His back was striped red and yellow, angry red muscle where the yellow of fat had been pulverised away. Chunks of grayed skin and blobs of yellow fat were mixed in with the blood spatter around the room. It was unfortunately reminiscent of confetti.

Ligature marks were black against his ghostly pale skin where he’d probably been strung up by his arms. Without enough blood in his body, his tanned skin looked chalky, distinctly gray. The bottoms of his feet were just as bloody as his back and glittered sickly with what he really hoped wasn’t broken glass. There were deep cuts into the flesh of his calves and thighs that had been burned shut. From the way that his legs laid, he knew the tendons and ligaments there had been cut. He’d been brutally hamstrung.

Jason’s voice broke on the next blow, scream breaking in the middle with a pained crack. 

Tim could barely hear the whimper from the next blow.

Tim couldn’t watch this. So he didn’t. 

Stray stood and planned out his route of attack. He sprinted as silently as he could and jumped. His kukri slid through the chest of the man on top of Harley and he toppled over.

Harley sobbed in relief as her arms thumped back down to her body.

The Joker whirled on his heel. His hair was matted to his scalp with blood and his pupils were different sizes. There was a notable dent on one side of his head from Harley’s bat. He laughed maniacally and dove at Stray.

He yanked his kukri free from the corpse under him and got them between him and the Joker, catching the crowbar on the curve of the blade and shoving it away.

For a concussed man with a head wound and an unbalanced weapon, he was scarily fast. 

Stray used every trick in his repertoire to build distance between them, flips and cartwheels and handsprings, but the Joker charged after him like a bull.

Stray had to catch a few more blows on his blades and twice had to take blows to his body. One to his right arm and one across the backs of his shoulders. He paid the Joker back with a nasty slice to his elbow and a stab to his thigh.

“Geddown!” Harley screamed.

Stray threw himself back and to the side, just in time for a bullet to pass through where his head would have been. Right, the other goon.

The Joker ignored the fact that it clipped his shoulder and instead took the chance to kick him while he was down. The first one caught his chest, the second one caught his jaw, the third one connected solidly with the bridge of his nose. His goggles shattered and he squeezed his eyes shut against the broken glass.

Weight slammed down on his chest and fingers wormed their way in through his goggles.

He shoved out and wiggled away from the fingers pressing against his eyelids. He could feel shards of tempered glass pressing into the thin skin around his eyes and his breath hitched. He shoved at the hands with one hand and scrabbled at the neck of his cowl with the other. Thank god for quick releases. His cowl popped off and tangled in the Joker’s hands as it lost shape and form. Stray gave his head a quick shake to dislodge the glass shards and shoved up with his hips, arching.

The Joker toppled forward onto his own face with a cackle and then rolled to his feet. “So that’s how you wanna play, huh?” Blood mixed with saliva sprayed across his face and he wanted to retch, but the Joker didn’t give him the chance. He grabbed a handful of Stray’s hair and yanked until tears were streaming down his face. He was pulling him by his hair. He scrambled with his feet to try and alleviate the pressure, grabbing onto the Joker’s wrist with both hands and trying to pull himself up.

“Let go!” He shouted.

“Hit him, go on, hit him!” The Joker laughed above him, passing the crowbar off to the goon who’d tried to shoot him. 

Stray tried to scramble out of the way of the swing, but didn’t get far with the Joker’s grip in his hair. He caught the blow across his stomach and lost all the air in his lungs with a pained cry.

“Let’s show this nasty little kitty what happens to unwanted cats!” The Joker sing-songed, dragging Stray by his hair as the guard followed. Every time the goon landed a blow to his torso, Stray saw stars and would reflexively try and shield himself with his arms. Releasing his hold on the Joker’s wrist meant his scalp would get his full weight and he would hurry to grab onto the Joker again.

He finally caught the rhythm of it and kicked out at the goon with his clawed climbing shoes. The wicked hooks on the front slashed across the man’s thighs and he yelled in anger. The next blow from the crowbar was a sharp jab to his stomach, not a broadsided blow.

Then the Joker dragged him up the stairs by his hair. Every step jarred his bruised body and yanked a few more hairs free from his scalp. 

The Joker snarled furiously when he saw the helicopter was unmanned and shook Stray like he was a misbehaving dog.

Stray hissed at him. The brief pause gave him enough time to twist around and he managed to kick him, tearing neat furrows in his hip with his climbing claws.

The Joker didn’t seem to notice the pain and just dragged him to the edge of the roof. “It’s too bad there’s no lakes around here!” He laughed, just before throwing Stray off the side of the roof. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skipped from *** notes: Tim takes out the guard by the helicopter and enters the warehouse. Harley is restrained and her clothes have been changed to show the Joker's abuse of her. Jason is in very bad shape and being beaten further by the Joker. Tim takes out one guard and tries to fight the Joker. The remaining henchman and the Joker manage to disable Tim and the Joker tries to disfigure him. He is beaten as he is dragged up to the roof and the Joker throws him off the roof.
> 
> Thanks for all the comments last chapter! <3 <3 here's today's and look for another one tomorrow! Leave a comment to keep me company at work while I edit the next part!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Less violence this chapter, but some description of pretty yucky injuries. Nothing too bad, in my opinion, but be aware.

Stray barely had enough time to twist in the air and spread his limbs out. He relaxed as much as he could, but given the circumstances, he could forgive himself being a little stiff. He hit the ground with his back and limbs, doing his best to spread the impact over as much of his body as he could. The plate armor on his back and hips helped absorb some of the impact as well, but he still saw stars and gasped for air. Everything went gray and fuzzy. He didn’t know how long he floated there in a haze of pain.

The helicopter took off from the roof. The Joker waved at him from the cockpit as it went.

Stray wheezed and tried to reboot. The Joker leaving now was bad, because Tim was still alive. So were Jason and Harley, by his knowledge. But he wouldn’t be leaving unless he were sure they were going to die before help could make it there.

Stray rolled over and gasped in pain when pain lanced through his ribs. There were definitely a few broken. He took a moment to curl into a ball of pain before shoving himself to his feet. His pain was nothing compared to the pain Harley and Jason were in. His pain was nothing compared to the possibility of their deaths. He ignored the pain and ran to the front door of the warehouse. 

It was locked. He didn’t have his goggles to check for life signs, but he had to get in there. He pulled his lockpicks out and knelt. He took a deep breath and tried his best to steady the shaking in his hands before starting on the lock. 

He froze when he heard movement on the other side of the door. The doorknob rattled in front of his face and then there was a thump lower down.

He heard a muffled sob from the other side. “It’s locked, Harley. It’s fucking locked.”

His heart went tight in his chest. He tried not to let his movements go vicious and was rewarded when he felt the last tumbler slide out of the way. He twisted and then yanked the door open.

Jason looked up at him from his prone position on the floor. Relief flooded his eyes and amazement made his mouth curl into the tiniest of smiles. There was a cut under his left eye that made it look like he was crying blood.

“You’re okay.” Tim promised. “It’s gonna be okay.” He had no idea if he was lying or not.

“Timmy, there’s a bomb, make it quick!” Harley shouted from further in.

“She’s tied up, you gotta help her!”

“Get the kid first! I can get free!” Harley yelled.

Stray listened. He pushed his knees as far forward up under Jason’s torso as he could, tugging him up until his face was pressed against Stray’s neck. He snaked his arms under Jason’s and pulled them flush until his biceps were firmly wedged in Jason’s armpits. “I’m so sorry.” He whispered into Jason’s hair as he hugged him as tightly as he could, grabbing onto his own forearms tightly enough that he could feel his climbing hooks cutting through the weakened armor of his bracers. 

Jason made a small, broken noise against him.

Stray rose from his crouch, lifting with his legs and leaning backwards, taking the majority of Jason’s weight on his hips. He ignored the strain in his ribs and on his bruises. He ignored the way that his climbing hooks dug further into his forearms the more of Jason’s weight he took. His pain wasn’t important.

“Fuck.” Standing like this, he could see Jason’s trailing legs were twisted, toes pointing directions that a healthy bone structure wouldn’t normally allow.

Jason’s breathing against his neck went ragged even before Stray started to move. He dragged his deadweight just like Selina had taught him, trying to ignore the gasps and sobs of pain against his neck. “I know, I know, I’m sorry, I know.” He panted. Jason had what had to be at least fifty pounds on him. He managed to drag him behind the industrial dumpster a little ways from the building. Would it be far enough out of the blast radius? Would the empty dumpster topple and flatten him?

He laid Jason down as gently as he could and Jason breathed heavily against the dirt as Stray worked. He pulled his staff out and extended it with a practiced flip. He slammed one end of it against the side of the dumpster, creating a dent. He used the claws on one boot to gouge the ground and shoved one end of his staff into each divot.

“Get Harley.” Jason croaked.

“On it.” Stray turned and sprinted back towards the building. “Harley?” He called as soon as he was in the door.

“Oh fuck, oh god, get me outta here!” She sounded hysterical.

Stray rounded the corner and his stomach twisted. Harley was tied to the bomb itself. Specially made leather cuffs wrapped around her arms from elbows to fingertips, giving her no wiggle room.

The digital display on the bomb, inches from Harley’s face, read twenty seconds.

Stray moved fast, yanking out a pair of throwing knives. His kukri would make fast work of the ropes, but Stray didn’t know where they’d fallen, so he worked at the ropes with his slender throwing knives.

“Hurry Timmy, hurry!” Harley yanked at the cuffs, helping by drawing the ropes taut.

“I’m going as quick as I can.” Stray bit out. He severed the first rope and was halfway done with the second. Harley braced and yanked back, snapping the remaining strand. Stray grabbed the third rope that went limp and pulled until it slipped through the last loop on her cuffs. He just hoped it wasn’t too late as the timer ticked down the last few seconds.

Harley was now able to separate her hands from each other, but there was no time for her to ditch the cuffs altogether. She grabbed Stray and broke into a sprint, bundling him into a tight ball in her arms. They only made it a few steps past the door before the bomb blew.

Harley wrapped her body around Tim’s, protecting him with as much of her body as she could. 

The building exploded and the two of them went flying when the blast hit them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? repeatedly leave y'all hanging with different minor cliffhangers? yeah that's in character for me and it tracks sorry y'all but this should be the last of them i think  
> next chapter: the backup arrives. Any guesses whomst? :3c  
> I work the next few days so probably another chapter tomorrow <3 leave me a comment and let me know what you're thinking


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No violence this chapter but Tim's pretty rattled after a giant huge overkill explosion, so this chapter is a lot of injury description, but nothing graphic.

Tim lost track of everything as they flipped ass over elbows, hitting the ground hard with their combined weight and momentum. Harley’s elbow was in his stomach and his hand was in her face and her hair was in his mouth and his heel was digging into her leg. The world strobed unpleasantly with bright fire and dark ground. They rolled to a stop and Tim could only writhe in pain for a moment as his entire body cried out in pain and he gasped for air. 

Harley was deadweight on top of him.

His ears were ringing so loudly that he couldn’t hear anything else. It was a shrill scream reverberating through his head as the roar of the explosion echoed in his ears, overwhelming everything else. There was a splitting pain filling his head and rattling around the inside of his skull. His eyes were pounding and his nose was throbbing. Everything under the shrill ringing was muffled. He shifted uncomfortably and managed to roll Harley off of him. That brief exertion made everything swim and shift.

He laid back and just breathed for a moment.

The night sky was beautiful. Except for the helicopter closing in.

Tim’s stomach clenched in terror. The Joker was back to gloat over their corpses, one way or another. 

Tim staggered to his feet, falling over twice. Silence and ringing roared in his ears and his vision was blurred where it wasn’t swimming. He didn’t have his staff. He didn’t have his kukri. He didn’t have the coordination to throw a knife. He grabbed his whip from his hip and dropped the coils.

The helicopter had landed and there was suddenly a man in front of him, only there were two of him. He was seeing double. That would make taking him out harder.

He closed one eye and staggered when his body tried to compensate. 

“Stay back!” He shouted. It was weird, yelling when he couldn’t hear his own voice. “Just leave us alone!” He was shaking, but he ignored it.

The figure in green and black raised his hands, but didn’t stop walking towards him. Had the Joker been wearing a black suit? He didn’t remember.

Tim lashed out with his whip and was astonished when an acid green shield bloomed into life around the figure. It yanked his whip free of his hand and he fell.

This just made the swimming worse. He blinked rapidly, trying to right his vision. The green shield glowed like a nightlight, giving Tim enough light to see the man that he’d attacked definitely wasn’t the Joker. 

The tall man knelt over him and pressed his fingers to his head.

Tim yelped in pain and recoiled. Then there was someone else there, behind the man. Her colors were unmistakable, even in his double vision. Gold and red and blue and a wild mane of hair. Wonder Woman. 

The green light must be the Green Lantern.

The Justice League!

Stray grabbed the Green Lantern’s arm. “You gotta help Harley and Robin! He’s over behind the dumpster, hurry!”

The Green Lantern was talking to him. He closed one eye and squinted with the other, but even then he couldn’t correct his vision enough to read his lips. The blast still echoed in his ears, muffling everything else.

He shook his head. “I can’t hear you! My ears-- the explosion!” He didn’t know if he was shouting or not.

The Green Lantern slowly drew closer and gently arranged Tim’s limbs so that he could lift him. It hurt, but Tim bit his lip through the pain. He was pretty sure he should be relieved, but all he felt was a rising sense of nausea. 

He squinted up at him. “I think I need to throw up.”

The Green Lantern moved quick. 

The next thing he knew, he was sitting on a field stretcher with a bedpan under his chin. There wasn’t much in his stomach for him to expel other than bile that burned at his throat and mouth. Once his stomach was empty, he dry heaved for a few minutes. The contracting muscles blazed with pain with each gag and hiccup and the pain made his eyes stream with reflex tears. He finally laid back onto the cot to find Catwoman leaning over him, worried.

She spoke as she brushed his bangs back from his sweaty forehead.

“I can’t hear.” He said.

She smiled in sympathy and nodded in understanding. She pressed a kiss to his forehead and began tugging his armor off. 

He was safe. Harley was safe. Jason was safe. The Justice League was here. Selina was here. Everything would be okay.

“Harley and Jason?” He asked as Selina pulled off his gauntlets and gloves.

She pointed.

The swimming in his head was starting to go away, replaced by a pounding headache. The double vision was still in play, but the blurriness was starting to fade. Harley was spread across another field stretcher, already set up with a blood transfusion and an oxygen mask. Wonder Woman and Green Lantern were working together to clean and bandage her wounds.

Tim sat up hazily and looked around a bit more. 

Jason was in a stretcher that was being levitated by Martian Manhunter. Superman glided alongside him, eyes glowing red as he spoke quickly to Black Canary, who was writing just as fast. 

He’d made it.

He let his eyes close again and everything faded away except for Selina’s fingers on his cheek. And then those too slipped away. Unconsciousness was mercifully painless. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shout out to everyone screaming at me in the comments I love all of you <3 <3  
> to everyone asking about the joker: Batman has a no kill policy and (in this universe) that's not flexible  
> Anyway I hope y'all are ready for the HarleyPamelaSelina ship to sail. HarPamLina? PosionQuinnCat? Siren Sandwich? What's the ship name someone fill me in here  
> Drop me a comment and let me know what you're thinking! The next chapter might take a few days because I've rewritten it, no joke, four times so far and I can't decide which direction I want to take it in. So if you have an opinion let me know because there's another eight or so directions I'm considering in addition to the 4 I've written ;-; being an author is hard guys


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discussion of injury in the aftermath with one note/disclaimer at the end

When he woke up, he was in an unfamiliar room. Steel walls and textured steel floors. No windows. Utilitarian light fixtures overhead. A drain in the floor. He was in a hospital bed. He was stripped down to his running tights and cat patterned socks. There was an IV in the crook of his left arm and bandages around his head. Most of his torso was wrapped, probably because of his ribs. There were several other bandages here and there on his body, but his armor had held up to most of the abuse. Even with the armor, there were still bruises splashed across his torso. There was a particularly nasty one where the goon had tried to stab him with the crowbar. He could only imagine his back was in a similar state. Bruises on the outsides of his arms and probably on the outsides of his legs and hips from crashing Harley’s motorcycle so many times.

There were several bandages under his pants as well. He felt his face carefully. There were pads of gauze over the worst of the cuts around his eyes and a heavy bandage on his nose. There were also bandages wrapped around his entire head with pads of gauze over his ears.

He had no weapons.

The room he was in was empty, but for him.

Panic flared through his chest but he forced himself to take a few deep breaths, wincing when his ribs protested. He remembered Selina had been there. She wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him. He wasn’t in handcuffs, so nothing too bad could have happened. But he was alone. He had to find Jason and Harley and Selina.

He sat up slowly. He had a headache, but it wasn’t too bad. There was a faint buzzing in his ears; they were still ringing. He snapped a few times and found that he could hear it but that it was muffled. Hopefully just by the cotton, though he suspected there may be permanent damage. If that was going to be the worst he escaped with--when Harley and Jason had months of recovery ahead of them--he wasn’t going to complain.

He unwrapped the bandages from his ears, unsurprised to find spots of dried blood on them. He snapped his fingers a few more times and grimaced when, yes, it was still muffled and indistinct. Maybe some of his hearing would recover with time, but he might have to wear hearing aids. That wouldn’t be too bad, he thought to himself, trying to push down the swell of heat behind his eyes. Bruce wore hearing aids, after all. There was nothing wrong with the Batman wearing hearing aids so there would be nothing wrong with him wearing hearing aids. It might not be fair, but he wasn’t going to complain about it.

He shoved the blankets off, testing his aching muscles as he did. It felt like some of his ribs were broken, but everything else seemed to be fine. Slight stiffness in his joints and muscles; he’d been here for a while then. Soreness in his chest and arms.

His wellness check done, he wanted to know what was going on. 

He disengaged the IV and slid it gently out of his arm, mindful of the muscles and veins there. He eyed the IV stand itself for a moment. Just the right height.

It disassembled easily and he took only the hollow steel shaft. His balance had recovered for the most part, but he was sore and stiff. Who knew being thirty feet and a steel wall from an explosion would fuck him up so bad? Not to mention falling off the roof. And crashing a motorcycle several times. And getting the shit beat out of him.

Maybe it was a miracle he was walking at all, after all that.

He was wearing only the tight leggings from his base layer and his socks. There was enough bandaging around his torso and arms that he could have been wearing a shirt. He was thankful for his socks when he slipped out of bed. He could tell the floors were bitingly cold. What sort of a hospital looked like this? It looked more like a prison cell than a place of recovery.

The door wasn’t locked. It was even slightly ajar. He slipped out and glanced up and down the hallway. No windows. Drains set every ten feet or so into the floor. It was deathly silent, but for a faint whispering down the hall. He followed it down around the corner, to the door where the whispers were coming from. He knelt outside the door to remain out of sight, now within earshot.

“...holding her for now. She woke up in surgery twice and then again in recovery. She was so agitated that she was threatening her own recovery. She went through an incredible amount of general anaesthesia, but J’onn is confident that he can keep her in an induced coma while he gets through to her.”

“She’s not in any pain?” That was Selina’s voice. They had to be talking about Harley. Tim could only barely make out the words. They were indistinct in his ears and hard to make out through the faint buzzing. He closed his eyes to focus on listening. This was the sort of thing they would probably try to avoid talking about around him. Something something too young something not your responsibility to worry about us something something blah blah blah. Selina knew not to patronize him, but she may withhold information based on how it may affect his recovery and mental state. He had no doubt that the Justice League would definitely patronize him.

“She’s in a great deal of pain, but part of what he’s doing is disrupting the nerve signals before they get to her brain. So long as she cooperates with him, she won’t be.”

“So, yeah, she’s in a lot of pain. You’re fucking useless!” And that was Pam. Tim had never heard her swear before. At least her shouting was easier to hear.

“Pam, they’re doing the best they can.” Selina said. “You know Harley’s a special case.”

“I could do better than this myself with a handful of dirt!” Pam was agitated.

“Harleen is in the best possible hands.” The woman they were talking to said. “She’s receiving the best possible care.”

Selina cut Pamela off. “We appreciate that. Now, how is Jason Todd?”

Tim inched closer to the door but didn’t dare to peek inside.

“He’s still in surgery, though not for much longer. I’m going to check on him next and I’ll let you know.”

“Thank you.”

Footsteps. Tim tensed, but they were going the other way, probably to check on the beeping machines.

“Will you wait with her?” Selina’s voice was almost too quiet for him to hear, would have been if not for the halls that conducted sound very nicely. “I want… I want someone to be there for her, not just…”

“These people she’s fought as enemies.” Pamela’s voice was softer now. Less angry. “I know. You don’t even need to ask. I want to be there for her too.”

“I want to be there for her.” Selina sounded so tired. “But I can’t leave Timothy. I don’t want him to wake up alone.”

“I know, flower. The demands of being a mother.”

“I don’t--” Selina made a frustrated noise.

“I know. I know. But they said Tim shouldn’t be awake for another hour or so. Just stay here with me for a minute. Harley’s going to be okay. Tim’s going to be fine. They’re both safe now.”

Tim tried to make out the indistinct noises at the edge of his hearing. They were wet. Ew. Were they kissing? Wait. Worse than that. One of them was crying.

Tim panicked and bolted down the hall, away from them. 

“Wait, where is--?” Someone was outside his room, but he couldn’t stop himself. His socks proved to be his undoing; he slid around the corner and came face to face with Wonder Woman and Aquaman, barely keeping his balance.

“Oh look. He’s up.” Aquaman said, straightfaced, staring at Tim’s makeshift staff.

Wonder Woman grinned broadly. “A true warrior, I see! Cats are quite fierce opponents. What is your name, little one?”

Tim blinked at her and belatedly hid the IV shaft behind his back.

She laughed.

“I believe the Catwoman said his codename was Stray. Kaldur’ahm said he is a great warrior in the making.” Aquaman was grinning now. “Come, little warrior, your friend is out of surgery.”

“Where?” He forgot about his shyness, clenching his staff in his hand. “Take me!”

Wonder Woman motioned to him and he found himself flanked by two original members of the Justice League. No biggie or anything. Neither of them made a move to take the IV shaft from him. It would probably be about as effective as a bendy straw against either of them, he supposed. They probably weren’t worried about the tiny teenager with his emotional support stick.

They led him to another steel walled room, but this one was full of different machines with wires and hoses connecting them to the figure in the bed. Jason looked like hell. He was wrapped nearly head to toe in bandages, both legs and one arm in plaster casts. Anything that wasn’t bandaged was bruised. He didn’t even look like Jason anymore, wrapped with bandages and discolored where he wasn’t. He was intubated, the clear tube taped to his cheek, mouth slightly open around it. His hair had even been shaved, robbing him of his distinctive bangs. People always romanticized sleeping people, saying they looked young and innocent and peaceful. They were wrong, Tim thought. Seeing Jason this still and quiet, this boneless and pale-- he looked like a corpse. Maybe in a different universe he hadn’t gotten there in time and he had died there, he thought morbidly.

“Hey.”

Tim jumped, startled at being addressed. He stared as Superman floated over to him from Jason’s bedside.

He was smiling softly at Tim. “Good work out there today.” He settled on the ground and rested a hand on Tim’s shoulder.

“Uh.” Tim clenched his staff tightly. “Thanks.”

“If ever you need anything, know that we’re all in your debt.”

Tim nodded dumbly.

Superman floated off again.

“Wait!” He blurted.

Superman turned curiously. He’d been joining Wonder Woman and Aquaman. Green Lantern, in the doorway, looked over as well. It was an intimidating lineup.

“Can you tell Catwoman you were there when I woke up and you brought me here?”

Superman smiled. It wasn’t the picture perfect grin he used in front of the reporters, the one that was always above the fold on the papers, but a softer smile that was more real. “Of course.”

Tim nodded his thanks and hurried over to Jason’s side. He stood over him for a moment, timing the rise and fall of his chest. He carefully reached past the tangle of tubes and wires to press two fingers to the base of his neck. He took his pulse manually, the way Selina had taught him, instead of trusting the computer spitting out his vitals. Then he sat in the chair next to the bed and fidgeted.

Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Superman had left. Green Lantern was leaning against the wall by the door. He was watching Tim. It made him itchy.

Tim glanced up at him and averted his gaze quickly when he met the white lenses in his mask. He couldn’t tell where he was looking. He peeked up at him again. He was getting ready to speak when he was interrupted.

_ “Where is he?”  _ It was a bellow. It was far away and indistinct, but it was sudden enough to make Tim jump. He clenched his staff tightly, scrambling to his feet.

Green Lantern sighed like he’d been expecting this and stood tall, planting himself in the doorway like a linebacker. Braced.

_ “Where’s my son?” _ The bellow was coming closer.

He could hear Wonder Woman speaking loudly and then could hear quick footsteps.

Batman burst into the room.

“Hey hey hey!” Green Lantern summoned up a pair of giant hands around his own, pressing them to Batman’s chest to slow him. Wonder Woman had her arms firmly around his torso from behind and was trying to slow him down, but even her legendary strength barely seemed to help. Between the two of them though, they managed to bring him skidding to a stop. “Spooky, hey, it’s okay, the kid’s fine! He’s okay! We got ‘em, okay? He’s good, Spooky, cross my heart!”

Batman looked horrible. Half his cowl had been torn away, the other half just tugged off and left hanging from his neck. Portions of his cape were missing. Some of it looked charred and some of it looked like it had just been eaten away. The armor on the left side of his body looked like it had been grated away, deep gouges of leather and kevlar missing, baring flesh in some places. Blood wetted his side, all up and down, making the black material look even darker in the stark lighting of the infirmary. There was a nasty cut on his forehead that was just starting to clot. The blood on his face was so copious that his bangs were flattened to his forehead. There was blood in his bared teeth. He was missing about half of the contents of his utility belt and one glove. His knuckles were raw and bruised. 

Batman slowed but didn’t stop.

Tim darted forward, grabbing a handful of what was left of his cape and tugged. He tugged three times, just how he had seen Jason and Dick do countless times when they had gone silent but he needed his attention.

Batman froze, head whipping to the side to bore into Tim.

“Robin’s okay, but he needs quiet.” Tim said. “And he’d yell at you if you even thought about brooding in here without getting fixed up. So calm down and stop yelling.”

Batman looked down at him for a long moment and then nodded.

Wonder Woman and Green Lantern shared a look before they both slowly straightened, removing their hands from Batman.

Tim pulled at Batman’s cape and he followed Tim with limping footsteps over to the bed. Batman stood over him for a long moment before pulling his other gauntlet off. There was a nasty lump on his wrist. He ignored it as he feathered his hands over Jason’s injuries, taking his pulse and checking all of the dressings. He finally settled a hand on the very top of Jason’s head and sighed. It was deep and shuddering.

Tim tugged at his cape again. “Go get fixed up.” He said, softly. “He’s under sedation. He won’t wake up for a while.”

Green Lantern approached cautiously. “Come on, Spooky. I have a shower with your name on it.”

He didn’t move for a long moment. “Diana. Will you stay?” He asked.

“Nothing in this realm could move me.” She said. “Nor Stray.” She added with an approving nod.

With that, Batman allowed himself to be led away by the Green Lantern.

Wonder Woman-- Diana, Tim corrected himself, took up the Green Lantern’s post by the door. He noticed now that she was wearing a massive circular shield on her back and a broadsword on her hip. The League must be on high alert, he thought to himself. He watched the steady rise and fall of Jason’s chest. He hadn’t even known Jason was in Gotham. What had he been doing there? What had the Joker done to get one over on him? Had he been trapped? Tricked? Drugged? 

The only thing he knew for certain was that Bruce hadn’t sanctioned it. Bruce would never have let Jason go anywhere near the Joker, especially after Barbara had been hurt.

Barbara. 

That was right, she’d been hurt too. He needed to see if he could get information on her. Was she okay? How long would her recovery take?

He settled down, wincing at the ache in his muscles and trying to catch his breath from the brief exertion. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken the IV out so soon. But it didn’t really matter. There wasn’t really anything to do now except for wait. The rise and fall of Jason’s chest was a comforting rhythm, the tempo of the symphony of beeps and puffs and hums.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I have chronic tinnitus which Tim is also going to have from here on out, but I am also intending on writing him as having some hearing loss, ie hard of hearing. I myself am NOT deaf/hard of hearing or part of these communities, but I AM doing research to make sure I'm portraying it properly. If you notice I've portrayed anything wrong or in an ableist manner, PLEASE let me know!! I want to do right by the deaf/HOH communities and portray it accurately and the last thing I want to do is do a bad job and hurt someone. I'm more than willing to educate myself if you just let me know where I messed up. <3 
> 
> I meant to get this up sooner but my back had other plans. I've re-injured my back so posting may be a bit slower. Sorry y'all. But hey, we're out of the woods!! Everyone is safe and everybody lived!! Yay!  
> I'm celebrating my birthday today and what I want for my birthday is comments, so please leave me one and let me know what you're thinking <3 <3


	16. Chapter 16

“Timmy!” He jumped. He hadn’t heard the footsteps down the hall. When he whipped his head around, Selina was there. Her cowl was down and her makeup was smudged around her eyes. “You’re awake!” She was soundless as she crossed the room, hardly giving Diana a second look. “No, don’t get up sweetheart, you’re injured.” She scolded. “You shouldn’t even be out of bed!” She looked a little frantic.

“I’m fine.” Tim smiled at her as he stood. “Superman said I was fine to come visit.” He lied easily. He didn’t feel bad for the lie, not when it soothed some of those frantic lines around her eyes. Selina leaned down to hug him gently, cupping the back of his head with care. She pressed her face to his hair and gathered him against her with the utmost care. It was the sort of gentleness she normally saved for lifting jewels from velvet beds and artifacts from glass cases. It was the sort of care that meant he was precious to her. She pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. “I’m so glad you’re alright, kitten.” She murmured.

He leaned against her and wrapped his arms around her loosely. For the first time since he woke up he could feel himself relaxing. “Sorry.” He mumbled against her.

“No, it’s alright dear. You did everything right.” She assured him. “You just scared the living daylights out of me.” She squeezed him gently, barely any harder. He was thankful for it. She knew how bruised he was then.

“I’ll try not to do it again?” He offered.

She laughed softly. “I wasn’t going to say that.” She withdrew gently and pushed him down into one of the flimsy plastic chairs.

“Good.” Because he probably would.

She smiled and settled against him, smoothing his hair down. Tim was struck with the mental image of a mother cat grooming her kitten. She murmured something that Tim didn’t catch.

“What?”

She repeated it but all he could hear was the sound of her voice, not the shape of it. When had the ringing in his ears increased? He pulled back slightly to see her face.

“What?” He said again.

This time he could read her lips. “Are you alright?” That wasn’t what she’d asked before.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just, my hearing, y’know? Can you just speak up?”

She frowned. He knew she could see through him, focused on him now as he was. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He nodded.

Her frown deepened. She didn’t believe him. Her eyes slid to the side, looking at Diana through her bangs. But she wasn’t going to discuss it here. She kissed him on the forehead. “Please, just be more careful.” She said.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat. He forgot sometimes that he really loved her. “I’ll try.” He buried his face in her embrace. 

She tugged him further in until he was half sitting on her lap. He felt so safe here with her that he couldn’t help it when he dozed off, still clutching the pole of his IV.

He woke up when she shifted, eyes snapping open and tensing.

Selina jostled him, tugging him back down into her hold. “It’s alright, darling.” She petted him. 

Tim blinked a few times as he settled back, orienting himself. Hospital, right. He looked over at Jason to confirm he was okay. 

Bruce was standing on the other side of the bed, watching Tim and Selina. He was dressed similarly to Tim, bandages over his entire torso and up and down his arms, wearing a pair of sweatpants with the Justice League logo down the leg. He was carrying a tablet and a sweater. He didn’t say anything, just sat down across from them in one of the plastic chairs. He immediately leaned forward to take Jason’s hand with both of his.

Tim was struck by how small he looked in comparison to Bruce. Jason was beginning to approach him in height and he threatened to catch up in breadth as well. But lying there full of wires and tubes and needles, his hand looked small and fragile in Bruce’s grip. 

He could barely stand to look at it, instead wiggling in Selina’s grip to look up at her. “How’s Harley?”

She sighed. That tired look was back, pinching her eyebrows and shadowing under her eyes. “I think she’ll be alright. She’s sedated, but with her tolerance, she’ll be up and about soon enough.”

“That’s good though.” He reminded her.

“I know. I just wish she knew when to sit still.” She grumbled. “Like you.” She said pointedly. 

“I’m fine!” Tim protested.

“You’re shivering.” She frowned.

Tim pouted when he realized she was right. “It’s cold.” It was his turn to grumble.

“Here.” Bruce stood just enough to hand him the sweater he was holding in his lap. “I…” He paused for a long moment. “brought it for Jason, but…”

Tim accepted it, realizing that yes, it was Jason’s favorite sweatshirt for one of his favorite bands. He felt like a kid again as Selina helped him into it so he wouldn’t displace any bandages. It was big on him, all of the seams and fabric stretched and tired from Jason’s growth spurts. He wouldn’t even be able to fit in this one for much longer.

“There. Is that alright, kitten? Let me see if I can find you a blanket too.” Selina frowned and stood. She rummaged through the storage in the room but huffed when there was just extra sheets for the bed. “I’ll be right back, darling. Brucie, do you need anything while I’m up?”

Bruce didn’t seem to notice she’d spoken, back to his vigil at Jason’s bedside.

She sighed and shook her head, that pinched look going just a little bit pained. She exited the room and he lost track of her, her footsteps indistinct.

The room went quiet again, apart from the beeping of the machines in the room. It was actually comforting to be able to hear Jason’s heartbeat, after confirming the machine’s accuracy with his own fingers of course.

“Tim.”

He looked over at Bruce.

He was exhausted. Not tired, but bone-deep exhausted in a way that was unsettling to Tim. He looked so much older than 37. Gotham was a weight that weighed on a person. The world, even more so. “Thank you. For being there when I wasn’t.”

Tim nodded. He didn’t answer, just went back to watching Jason.

Selina returned after a while with Black Canary at her side, both of them carrying blankets. Selina tucked one around Tim while Dinah draped hers over Bruce’s shoulders.

Dinah rounded the bed to kneel in front of Tim’s chair, putting her below his eye level. Psychologically, it was supposed to make her less threatening, he knew, supposed to help put him at ease. That just meant what she was about to say was probably going to be uncomfortable.

She rested one hand on his knee, making sure she had his attention. “How are you doing?” She asked softly.

“I’m fine.” Tim shrugged. “And if I’m not, I’ll get there.”

Dinah smiled. “I figured. You Gotham boys are something else. But even if it’s alright now, you may still be in shock.” He appreciated her bluntness. “As you process more, you might not be. I just want to make sure you know that it’s okay to ask for help.” She held out a card. 

He took it. It was blue, with a cheerful canary on the back that he couldn’t help but smile at. The front read  _ Dinah Lance, Councilor  _ in gentle italics over her contact information.

Selina sat down next to him, still fussing with his blanket. More for something to do with her hands than out of necessity. “I’m going to be having a few meetings with her.” She said softly to Tim. “I’m going to ask Pam and Harley too as well. I’d like it if you did, but it’s your choice. You can wait until you’re ready, if you want.”

Tim stared at the card, turning it over and over and over, flipping between the canary in flight and  _ Dinah Lance, Councilor.  _ Canary, councilor, canary, councilor, canary, councilor. “I’ll think about it.” He said eventually. He felt fine now, but logically, he knew he was still in crisis response mode.

Dinah nodded, smile going gentle. “As long as you know that it’s always an option, Tim. No matter what. You’re one of us now.”

Wasn’t that novel, he thought to himself. 

Dinah stood, grimacing when her knees popped with the movement. “And I’m glad you’re okay. Call anytime you want.” She gave him one more smile before rounding the bed again. “Bruce, just let me know what you need, alright?”

He nodded absently. “Thank you Dinah.” He murmured.

Tim settled against Selina. Then, like Dinah was the floodgate, there was a steady stream of people in and out, just one or two at a time. They would come in and eye Jason laying in the bed with pained looks of pity, would squeeze Bruce’s shoulder, would give Tim a look of curiosity or skepticism, would leave.

Jason would have hated it.

Tim hated it for him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My back is actually a lot better off than I was worried it was, so thank god for that. Thanks everyone for the concern though <3 I've got therapy for 8 weeks and then hopefully I'll be right as rain! Jason and Harley are probably going to need a hell of a lot more than eight weeks of physical therapy though :<  
> But like, uhhhhhh, catch me looking at canon like how come none of u r in therapy??? please get u some therapy its the best thing since sliced bread  
> please shout out if u see any typos/spellos thanks <3  
> Many kisses to everyone commenting <3 <3 they sustain me and motivate me and I appreciate you all so much  
> Next chapter: Harley's up (but she absolutely shouldn't be)


	17. Chapter 17

Tim frowned when another person entered Jason’s room. Selina had run down the hall to check on Harley and Pam, so it was just him and Bruce. He didn’t even know who these two men were, doubted Jason did either. He didn’t like the sick, curious glint in their eyes either. Bruce hadn’t even twitched when they’d walked in.

He stood, stiffly, and palmed his staff. “Visiting hours are over.” He announced quietly. He didn’t want to disturb Jason’s peace or Bruce’s meditative state.

“We just wanted to stop in and say hi.” The taller man waved him off. Tried to, anyway.

“Robin and Batman would prefer to maintain their privacy. Please leave.” Please leave before he had to back up his mouth with his aching body, please.

“Come on kid, we’re just saying hi.” The taller one, grinning amicably.

“Look, who even are you?” The shorter one, looking annoyed.

“That would be Stray, the hero of the hour.” Green Lantern was in the doorway, arms crossed and leaning against the wall. “And, funny as it would be to watch him wipe the floor with your two sorry asses, his mom’ll tan my hide if he so much as sweats. So leave Batman alone.” He spoke calmly, voice cold. 

“C’mon Hal, we just wanted to--”

“Yeah, I know what you wanted to do. Now I suggest you wanna get outta here before I gotta power up.” He held up a fist. A ring glinted against his white gloves.

The two men both turned and filed out.

The Green Lantern watched them go with a cold face before turning to Tim with a smile. “Hey kid. Good to see you’re up and about. How you doin’?”

Tim shuffled out of his fighting stance, tucking his staff against the length of his leg and torso. He examined the Green Lantern for a long moment, looking for any signs of insincerity. Green Lantern just grinned at his inspection. “I’m fine.”

“Good to hear. Last time I saw you, you looked like you could see on any plane except this one and you  _ still  _ almost took my eye out with that whip of yours.”

Tim could feel himself blushing. “Sorry?” He offered.

“No worries, kid. And how’s Spooky doin’?” He pressed two fingers to Bruce’s neck. That’s right, the two of them were friends. He’d been the one to calm Bruce down when he’d first arrived.

Bruce slapped his hand away, reeling slightly and looking startled. “Get off me.” He scowled at the Green Lantern.

“Doing just fine then.” Green Lantern shook his hand theatrically, like Bruce’s startled swat had hurt. Well, it actually might have, Tim supposed. 

“What do you want, Hal?”

“Just wanted to come by and check on you guys. Make sure the little ankle-biter was still good. Make sure you hadn’t ripped Ollie’s or Bar’s heads off, y’know, the usual really.”

Bruce sighed and sat back slightly, still holding onto Jason’s good hand with one of his.

“Wanted to make sure you were okay. So sue me.” Hal shrugged. “And I wanted to say hi to the new kid. You know he almost took my eye out with his whip, right?”

“Means you’re getting slow.” Bruce grunted.

“Hey now, that’s mean.” Hal pouted.

Bruce rolled his eyes. “I’m Batman.” He growled at him.

Tim slapped a hand over his mouth because he was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to laugh at the Batman. Only Jason did a really funny impression of Bruce’s whole  _ I am the night _ speech and now it was impossible to take it seriously. 

Hal pointed at Tim, obviously having heard him. “I like this kid.”

Bruce glanced sidelong at Tim. One corner of his mouth twitched upwards. “I like him too.”

“Well that’s too bad boys, I’m keeping him.” Selina announced, marching back into the room, pushing a new gurney. “And I’m keeping him right here. Tim, in the bed.”

“C, I’m fine!” Tim gestured to himself. 

Selina wheeled the bed into place across from Jason’s and set the brakes on the wheels. “This is not a request, Tim.” Her eyes were red and her jaw was tense. This was not a Selina to argue with.

Tim sat on the end of the bed, watching her carefully. She needed to rest but gods only knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not surrounded by the Justice League of Superheroes Who Wanted To Put Her In Prison. “C.” He caught her suit by the belt, tugging gently. “Come sit with me.”

She pursed her lips but nodded after a moment, climbing up to sit next to him. Tim shuffled back to lean against the elevated back and she mirrored him after a moment, tucking him into her side again. He went willingly, resting his head on her chest where her heartbeat pressed against his cheek.

Hal watched them with a smile and took a relaxed stance by the door.

Bruce went back to his vigil.

Selina was asleep within minutes, cheek propped on the top of his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting these bits and pieces as I get them sorted out my google doc is a MESS. a M E S S y'all. cry for me tbh but this fic is finally winding down and by winding down I mean there's probably five or six more chapters???? this is all getting out of hand. This was supposed to be a oneshot y'all  
> leave me a comment to validate my questionable decisions and let me know what you want to see before I tie this all up with a tidy little bow


	18. Chapter 18

Superman was the next person to come by who actually made it past the doorway. His hair was damp from a shower and he was wearing a blue Superman shirt with Justice League sweatpants. It was kind of funny that he was wearing his own--

Tim jerked as his brain suddenly clicked. Selina awoke with a start at his sudden movement. He recoiled almost violently, overbalanced, and had to twist awkwardly to land on his feet when he rolled off the side of the bed.

“Tim!” Selina grabbed at him, steadying him when he straightened. “Darling, are you alright?”

“You!” He pointed at Superman. No. At  _ Clark Fucking Kent _ . He just gaped for a moment as Superman turned to him, politely puzzled. “You’re fucking Superman!”

Clark looked down at his clothes and then back up at him, eyebrows quirked. “Yes?”

“No, I mean, you’re that fucking reporter!” Tim stabbed his finger at him for emphasis. “You danced with my  _ Mom _ !”

Selina stood, setting her hands on his shoulders. “Darling, calm down. Are you alright?”

“What? No, Selina, he’s that reporter from the museum! With the Crown of Ingary!” He added, knowing the context would help jog her memory.

She frowned for a moment before her mouth popped open in surprise. “Clark Kent.” She breathed, staring at him.

He looked incredibly amused. “Ah, yes. I was wondering when you would put it together.” His grin was mischievous. 

“You were trying to stop her!” Tim accused.

Clark laughed, eyes crinkling.

Even Bruce was pulling a smile.

“I think I would have been good help keeping Miss Kyle occupied during the evening.”

“Not a chance.” Tim bristled.

“Reporters can be quite tenacious.” Bruce murmured.

Clark’s grin widened. He looked delighted at being found out. God, but heroes were weird. 

“It’s not even a good disguise!” Tim was disgusted with himself. “I knew you were up to no good!”

“You’ve always had excellent intuition, darling.” Selina tugged at his arm. “It’s rude to point.”

Tim whirled on her. “Did he hit on you?” He demanded. Why wasn’t anyone taking this seriously?

Selina stared at him for a moment, incredulous, before she broke down laughing. She had to lean on Tim and the side of the bed to stay upright as she cackled.

Tim sighed scowled at Clark.

“Yes.” His answer came from Bruce. 

Clark and Tim both stared at him.

“But not well.” He added, completely deadpan.

“Bruce!” Clark looked indignant.

“Clark.” Bruce kept a straight face.

“Timmy!” Selina laughed, clutching at him as he tried to lunge. 

“Tim, your wounds.” Pamela scolded, her ire with Superman forgotten for the moment. Several vines sprouted around his arms and waist.

Tim sulked and slumped in Selina’s hold. Upon further thought, Superman was impervious. He’d probably just hurt himself in the attempt. He had to have some sort of weakness though. He bet Bruce knew it, but Bruce would probably never say. Tim cocked his head in thought. If Bruce knew, then the paranoid man would probably have some of whatever it was. Probably kept whatever weapon it was in his League suit, if not his regular ones. Where would the locker room be, he wondered. “Leggo.” He grumbled, plucking at Selina’s fingers. He could probably get Pam on his side, he figured. It would be unfortunate if Clark Kent got the idea that he could stop Catwoman from doing whatever she wanted. Poison Ivy would agree with that, right? He glared sourly at Clark fucking Kent when Selina lifted him back into bed instead of letting him go. He had no idea where his staff went either, so there went that. 

Clark was grinning. Tim bitterly wished he had a camera-- any of his cameras. The press would pay out the nose for a picture of Superman wearing that shit-eating grin. He hunkered down and just glared at him. Selina settled back down next to him, the better to grab him by the scruff of his neck, and just giggled softly to herself. He elbowed her whenever she got too loud, but she just laughed more when he did. She was lucky she squeezed him in a hug when she did because he was ready to push her out of the bed altogether. 

“This is serious!” He whined, trying to push out of her stranglehold.

“I know darling, you’re just too cute!” She laughed in his ear and squeezed him gently.

“Ugh.” He went limp, resigned. 

Across the room, Clark was smothering laughter.

Tim glared.

Clark couldn’t help himself from bursting out laughter when Selina pressed a noisy kiss to the crown of his head.

Tim was going to have to kill Superman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short lil fun chapter! And actually, I lied, I did some restructuring, so only actually one or two chapters left in this leg of the story???  
> Next chapter: Harley wakes up (probably)  
> Also PLEASE be picturing Tim trying to squirm out of Selina's hold like a cat and then going limp with resignation, arms sticking out, like longcat. And so much glaring. So, so much glaring.  
> Ty again for all the lovely comments so far!! <3 <3 I'm going to try to get the last chapter or two up this weekend so leave another comment to motivate me and remind me of any loose ends you want me to be sure I get to!!


	19. Chapter 19

Tim wasn’t surprised when Harley careened into the room after another few hours. He heard her coming all the way down the hall.

“Miss Quinzel, please--”

_ “Doctor! I didn’t shlep through medical school to get called miss!” _

“Doctor, you’re going to agitate your injuries!”

_ “If you don’t get outta my way I’m gonna agitate your face with my fist!” _

“It’s easier just to let her do what she wants.” That was Pamela.

“ _ Where’s the squirts?!”  _ She burst into the room like a bat out of hell, ducking under Green Lantern’s reflexive blow without even thinking about it, sliding soccer style under the green hammer. Though Tim noted she pressed a hand to her ribs as she did so. Selina jerked awake with the noise, lurching upright. Tim spared a brief thought to think that waking up repeatedly like this really couldn’t be good for her heart.

Harley was wrapped in bandages from head to toe with only a flimsy hospital gown over it. Her hair was still in bedraggled, bloodstained pigtails and there was still smudged eyeliner around her eyes. There was a wad of gauze taped to her left cheek and a large bandaid on the other side of her chin. Bandages were wrapped around her neck, vanishing below the neck of the hospital gown. Her right hand was in a cast that went over her elbow. She wasn’t limping so much as she was hobbling. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain that she was just pushing to the side.

Looking at her in her blood-spotted bandages and paper gown, Tim was very grateful they’d left him his pants. Harley didn’t seem to care about her near-nudity though. Her mouth was twisted into a harsh snarl that only abated when she saw Tim and Jason.

“Timmy!” She yelled like they were across a battlefield. Her voice was cracked and raw but full of relief. He scrambled up and off the bed, letting her scoop him up into a tight hug. He hugged her back just as hard, burying his face in her neck. “Oh baby, oh Timmy, you’re okay, I’m so glad you’re okay, thank god you’re okay.” She ran her hands over as much of him as she could touch while simultaneously squishing him to her.

He could feel her heartbeat against his chest, hammering away far too fast for someone in recovery. 

And then Selina was there, and Pam, on each side of them, pressing in close. 

“They’re both okay.” Selina pressed a kiss to Harley’s bandaged temple, leaving a smudge of purple lipstick. “We’re all okay.” She gave Tim one next. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Pam wordlessly pressed another kiss to Harley’s cheek, slinging an arm around her shoulders and ducking down to press her face into Harley’s neck. Tim pretended not to see the moisture in her eyes, closing his own instead. He leaned into Harley and Selina and Pam’s hold, letting them hold him upright for a moment.

“Harls, come on, you shouldn’t be up.” Pamela whispered after a moment. She was shaking like a leaf against them.

“I’m not leaving.” She squeezed Tim pointedly, as if he could anchor her here. He would if he could. “Oh!” She surged in their grips, dragging Tim along with her. “Jaybird!” She scooped Tim up into her arms to move more easily. Tim yelped in surprised as she bundled him into her arms. “Oh no, oh gosh, the poor thing!” Harley was practically dancing in place with agitation.

“Harley!”

“Harls!”

“Harley, let me down!” Tim struggled as gently as he could. “C, the bed!” Harley’s bandaged fingers were digging in to his thigh and shoulder.

“Harls, you need to calm down!” Pam was also struggling to be gentle, throwing out her hands to wrap hair thin lengths of vines around her arms and sides.

Selina dragged the bed over and suddenly Bruce was there.

“Harley, it’s alright now.” His commanding voice left no room for doubt. “Jason is safe. Tim is safe. You are safe here.” He loomed over them, somehow seeming to grow taller and broader as he curled protectively over them. He set a hand on her back, huge, but comforting.

Harley finally seemed to see past her adrenaline and panic when she looked up at him. “It’s okay?” She asked in a tiny, wobbling voice.

“It’s okay.” Bruce confirmed.

Tim could practically see the wheels turning behind her eyes. She slowly loosened her grip on Tim and he reached down with a foot until he could take his own weight. And then, like holding Tim had been holding her upright, she staggered slightly. Pamela and Bruce each caught a shoulder.

Harley’s chin wobbled and she blinked up at Bruce. “Everything hurts, Batsy.”

“I know.” He said gently. “I know. Me too.”

Fat tears began to leak from her eyes only to be absorbed by the bandages on her face. She clutched at Pam’s hand on her shoulder. “‘S Jayjay gonna be okay?”

Bruce nodded. “He’ll heal.” He said simply. “And so will you. Can I help you?”

She nodded.

He bent, ignoring his own wounds, and lifted her gently, like a princess.

Tim backed up, out of the way, letting Bruce and Selina and Pamela settle her in Tim’s abandoned bed.

“Hal, give me a hand.” Bruce ordered. Between the two of them, they moved the bed back into position against the wall.

“She is quite tenacious.” Martian Manhunter entered the room, carrying a first aid kit in one hand and keeping a wad of gauze pressed to his nose with the other.

Pamela scowled at him. “I told you.” She said.

“So you did.” He touched down gently at Harley’s bedside. “Lantern, if you could mind the door.” His request was not a suggestion.

Hal summoned up a giant glowing hand that he used to slam the door shut in the faces of curious onlookers. He leaned against it, crossing his arms.

“Please back up, Bruce, Selina, Pamela.” He ordered. The first aid kit unpacked itself in midair.

“Get fucked, Jolly Green!” Harley barked. “I didn’t want you rooting around in my head and I don’t want you fucking around with my body either!” She kicked at him several times.

He dodged away from her foot. “Doctor Quinzel, please, I am only trying to help.”

“And I do not consent to treatment from you so you can fuck off with your mind reading bullshit!”

“J’onn, I’ll take it from here.” Bruce grabbed the med kit from the air and laid it on the foot of the bed.

J’onn frowned at him for a moment before taking his leave. Or, he would have, if he hadn’t spotted Tim and stopped. He tilted his head. “Who gave you inhibitors, child?” He asked.

Tim looked around, just out of reflex to see if he was talking to anyone else. “What?”

“Your earrings.” J’onn came closer.

He was taller up close. Tim wanted to back up, but that would have put Jason between them and that just wasn’t something he was comfortable with, so he stood his ground. God, he was tall though. He reached up slowly and touched his ears. He was wearing simple rounded studs that he didn’t remember putting in. He realized that they were the same ones Jason had given him when he’d visited the Young Justice League and never taken out. 

And then the martian was pegged in the side of the head with a roll of medical tape. His eyes bugged out of his head.

Tim bit his lip to keep from laughing.

“You leave Timmy alone!” Harley shouted.

“C’mon man, let’s get you out of the field of fire.” Hal had no qualms about grinning in the face of J’onn’s irritation. He winked at Tim as he pulled J’onn away and Tim couldn’t help his grin then.

Harley settled down with J’onn gone and let Bruce and Selina patch her up, holding tightly to Pam as they worked.

Tim felt antsy and took up a crouching pose on the metal bar at the end of Jason’s bed. He’d reclaimed his staff and now he perched where he could easily see Harley burying her face in Pam’s side and Hal leaning against the wall by the door. If he turned his head, he could see Jason just behind him.

They set Harley’s bed up across from Jason’s where she could see him easily. They’d learned the hard way when they tried to put up a privacy curtain that having Jason, and to a certain extent, Tim, would send her blood pressure skyrocketing with lingering panic and anxiety. The infirmary slowly calmed down over the next few hours.

Pam was asleep in Harley’s bed and Harley was curled up with her head in Pam’s lap. Selina was slumped over against the side of the bed, holding Harley’s hand. She wasn’t asleep but she was still and silent. Every other minute or so or whenever she heard Tim move, she would slide her eyes open and check that he was still there.

He had shifted from his perch on the end of the bed to sitting on the foot of Jason’s bed, cross legged. He was briefly worried about jostling either of Jason’s casted legs, but the beds were extra long in deference to the taller members of the league. He was facing the door with his makeshift staff across his lap. He’d filched an extra blanket from the closet in the room and had it draped over his shoulders but didn’t want to impede his movements too much by bundling up in it.

The room was mostly empty now, Hal and Bruce having been called away by a frowning Diana. Bruce had wordlessly passed Tim a long, wicked knife from a sheath on his shin which Tim had tucked away in the pocket of his (Jason’s) sweater. To amuse himself, he’d grabbed the ballpoint pen attached to Jason’s chart and had started drawing on Jason’s cast. At first, he’d just signed it, but the  _ Tim _ looked so tiny surrounded by so much space, so he’d doodled a little cat. But then the cat had looked lonely, so he’d drawn his best approximation of a robin, complete with a little domino mask. From there, it was only natural to add a bigger cat off to the side and a bat flying overhead. He was pretty sure he’d screwed up the bat anatomy pretty badly, but it was a decent approximation of Bruce’s silhouette swooping down from overhead, so he wasn’t too mad about it. He added a second robin and a second bat, lower down on his ankle, as well as a little potted flower and a tiny anatomically-incorrect court jester. Then he gave the first robin a batarang and it kind of spiraled from there.

There was a huff of laughter from overhead and he stiffened. He looked up slowly, caught in the act of giving the potted flower a gun.

Bruce was smiling down at him. He held his hand out.

Tim slowly handed it over.

Instead of throwing it away, he bent down and signed his name with a big looping B over the knob of Jason’s knee. He added a tiny little cartoon bat hanging off the tail of the E to it that was giving a thumbs up.

Tim grinned when he saw how proud Bruce looked of it.

A cough made them both jerk their heads up.

Hazy brown eyes were squinting down at them, unfocused. Tim was suddenly glad the tube had been taken out of his throat several hours ago and replaced with a regular oxygen mask. That was his first thought. His second thought was that brown was his new favorite color. He hadn’t seen Jason’s eyes in what felt like a lifetime and he was so glad to see them now that he almost started crying.

“Jaylad!” Bruce stood so fast he knocked his chair back, immediately bending to press his forehead to Jason’s.

Jason coughed a few more times, each one growing more labored until Tim grabbed his bottle of water from the blankets. “Here, Bruce, here.” He crawled up the side of the bed.

Bruce carefully slid the mask to the side and slipped his hand underneath Jason’s neck to support him. Jason’s non-casted hand came up to grab at the bottle, gripping shakily over Tim’s and dragging it to his mouth. He gulped greedily until the bottle was empty and then flopped back. He coughed a few more times, swatting at Bruce’s hand when he dragged the oxygen mask back over his mouth and nose.

“Fuck!” The word was clear, even through the mask and Bruce choked out a laugh. Tim couldn’t help but grin too, unreasonably happy at the profanity. “What--” He coughed a few times and pressed the mask further into his face. “What th’fuck are you nerds--” He coughed again.

“You’re alright.” Bruce sank down into a chair-- not the one he’d knocked over, though he looked dazed enough to have tried.

Tim rubbed at his face with the sleeves of his sweater, suddenly aware that he was crying. “You’re okay.” He whispered, grinning.

“What’s going on?” He coughed a few more times, sucking at the oxygen every time. He looked so groggy, didn’t seem to be in any pain, even when he coughed. That was probably thanks to the drugs though.

“You’re in the hospital, it’s okay!” Tim assured him.

“Where’s Alfie?” His eyes were still hazy and unfocused. “B? Where’s Alfie?”

Bruce immediately stood and leaned over him again. “We’re at the Watchtower, Jaylad. Alfred’s at home.”

“Barbie! Where’s Barbie!” 

“S’ Harley okay?” He squinted up at Bruce. “S’ Timmy?”

“Harley’s okay. I’m okay too.” Tim leaned forward.

Jason reached out blindly and grabbed his wrist tightly. “Timmy.” He said and coughed again.

“It’s alright, Jaylad, everything’s alright.” Bruce assured him.

“‘M sorry.” His eyes fluttered shut but then he yanked them back open again. “B, ‘m sorry.”

“It’s alright, Jaylad, just sleep. It’s okay, I’m here.” 

Jason let his eyes flutter closed again, but his grip on Tim’s wrist squeezed tighter.

“I’m here too, Jason. I’m not leaving.” He promised.

Jason settled. His heartbeat slowed. And then he was asleep.

He was still holding tightly to Tim’s wrist. He remembered how raw Jason’s hands and fingers had been and just rotated his arm around to hold Jason’s forearm in return. It was probably his imagination that Jason’s grip lightened the tiniest bit at that. He settled down to keep watch, laying so he was more comfortable with his hold on Jason’s arm.

Jason woke up about every hour and a half or so after that, each time for a little longer and a little longer, until finally the day when he opened his eyes and they were clear. 

“Fuuuuuuuuck.” He groaned.

Bruce had somehow timed it down to the minute and Tim couldn’t help but grin where he was sitting next to Jason, still holding his hand. 

He blinked blearily and nearly slapped himself in the face groping for the oxygen mask, tugging free of Tim’s grip. “Fuck. I feel like I got hit by a truck.” He whined, squinting up at Bruce, who was looming over him. “What happened? Where the fuck am I? Fuckin-- Tim? What are you doing here?”

“Jason.” Bruce gently removed the oxygen mask for him. “What do you remember?”

Jason hissed as the strap of the mask dragged over some of the bandages. “Fucking hell, B! Shit! Everything hurts!” He grimaced, shifting. He glanced down his body and his grimace deepened. “Ahh, shit, I fucked up.” He groaned.

“Lay still. We wanted to reduce the medication to see if it would help you wake up.”

“Turn it back up.” Jason clenched his teeth.

Bruce pressed a few buttons on the automated pump. “That should help in a moment.”

“Shitfuck.” Jason threw down his free hand to fist in the sheets but bumped Tim’s knee.

Tim took his hand and laced their fingers together, squeezing as tightly as he dared.

Jason squinted over. “Timmy?”

“Hey Jay.” He smiled. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel like shit. Fuck. Like I got hit by a truck.” He grimaced again. “Or like the Joker took a fucking crowbar to me for a full body massage,  _ fuck _ . Shit. Fuckshit. Shitfuck. Fuck.” He hissed, more to himself than anything else.

“Hey, Jaylad, it’s alright.” Bruce smoothed a hand over his head, as gently as he could.

“I fucked up.” He whispered up at Bruce. Tears streaked back from the corners of his eyes.

“We all do.” Bruce murmured. “It’s okay.”

“Fuck, where’s Harley?” Jason yelped when he tried to lunge upright and groaned when his back hit the mattress again.

“She’s fine. She’s right across from you. Just stay down, alright?”

“Help me sit up.” Jason grunted. He dragged his hand back to push himself up with his elbow but didn’t let go of Tim’s hands.

Bruce cradled the back of his neck and lifted his opposite shoulder enough for Jason to see Harley sleeping across from him. He went limp all at once.

“Oh thank fuck.” He groaned.

Tim pulled his hand into his lap. 

“What happened?” Bruce asked.

Jason closed his eyes and took a carefully measured breath. “The thumb drive in my pouch has everything.” He said after a moment. 

Bruce frowned. “Is anyone in danger?”

Jason shook his head.

“Then it can wait.” Bruce said.

Jason opened his eyes at that, looking shocked and confused. “What?”

“It can wait.” Bruce repeated.

Jason looked at him for a long moment but didn’t argue, probably because his eyes were starting to go a little hazy again from the increased amount of painkillers flowing into his system. “‘S Barbie good? You got Barbie?” His eyes went wide again.

“Barbara’s alright. She’s in the hospital.” Bruce assured him. “Just rest now. It’s alright.”

Jason settled back again. “Fuck. Ow.” He whined.

Tim couldn’t help but laugh. He was clearly going to be fine if he was already complaining.

Jason huffed at him. “Don’t laugh at me.” He grouched.

Tim giggled. “I’m not laughing  _ at _ you, I’m laughing because I’m happy you’re okay.” He smiled.

Jason stuck his tongue out at him and then lost his train of thought as another wave of drugs rushed into his systems. He left his tongue sticking out for a moment, looking so much like a cat mid-lick that Tim laughed again.

Jason blinked at him and withdrew his tongue. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He said softly, eyes going hazy again, eyelids starting to droop again. 

“I’m glad you’re okay.” Tim murmured his own words back to him as he fell asleep. Finally into actual sleep, not unconsciousness or drugged sleep. That meant he was really on the mend. He watched Jason quietly, completely unaware of Bruce and Selina moving in the background.

Several hours later, Bruce and Selina stood together, staring down at their sons. They were holding each other’s forearms like a lifeline. The hold was strikingly similar to an acrobat’s hold: a secure grip able to support far more weight than by holding hands. Jason was sprawled flat on his back in the big bed and Tim was laying alongside him, turned carefully sideways to avoid kicking his casts. Tim’s free arm was sprawled across Jason’s chest, a holdover from where he’d been crouching over him earlier when he’d woken.

He remembered their first meeting, a tiny furious Tim darting out from behind Selina to yell that Jason wasn’t Robin, an equally furious (though less tiny) Jason going after him fist first-- exactly the way Bruce was trying to get him not to do. It had ended up with Jason on his ass and Selina hiking Tim up by the scruff of his neck. All signs at their first meeting pointed at the two boys being enemies-- nemesis, if Jason’s angry ranting later could be trusted-- but somewhere along the line, the two boys had developed a friendship. Bruce would have called it a brotherhood, were it not for the way Jason’s grin went softer around the edges when he talked about Tim, were it not for the way Tim went shy when Bruce had given him Jason’s hoodie, were it not for the way the two boys clutched at each other even in their sleep. He was glad Tim was resting. He deserved it. 

Selina gently draped a blanket over Tim and part of Jason with a soft smile. “We’ll have to keep an eye on these two.” She murmured to Bruce. “They’ll get into so much trouble otherwise.”

Bruce chuckled. “They’ll get into trouble regardless. The two of them are going to be unstoppable.”

“I think you’re right.” Selina shook her head and pulled out her phone to get a picture of the two laying together in the oversized hospital bed. It joined the several she’d already taken of Pam curled protectively around Harley.

“Send that to me, would you?” Bruce asked, ducking slightly to peer at the screen.

“Only if you’ll keep a copy on a hard drive. Timmy will purge it from my electronics as soon as he finds it.” 

“I’ll make you a hard copy.” Bruce promised. It was going to be the new background for the computer in the cave and Jason wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. It served him right for giving Bruce a heart attack.

Jason tugged a big at their joined hands in his sleep and shifted restlessly. Tim wiggled a bit and muttered something in his sleep, tugging back. Bruce couldn’t help but smile. The two of them were going to be greater than a force of nature one day. He imagined a world where Jason took the mantle of Batman and Tim supported him from the shadows, fighting flawlessly and protecting each other just as seamlessly. He was glad Jason had Tim to help him become a greater man than Bruce.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it! That's the end!! Aahh!!! Aaaahhhhh!!!!! I can't believe it!! Two down, 6-8 to go?? Keep an eye out for the next work in the series, but it might be a while because I like to get it roughly halfway done before I start posting so I can update somewhat regularly. In the meantime, consider dropping me a comment to motivate me to write or sending me a message on tumblr or checking out some of my other dc fics! <3 <3 <3 thank you all for going on this roller coaster with me!!

**Author's Note:**

> As always, leave a comment and let me know if you liked it! If you liked it, let me know what you liked! <3  
> Also as always, I'm on tumblr at InAweOfDiana and you're also welcome to ask me things and send comments there if that's more your speed!


End file.
